Gwynt y Mor Offshore Wind Farm
innogy Renewables Ireland, joint developer of Dublin Array Offshore Wind Farm, today welcomes the announcement by Minister of State, Damien English TD, of a clear road map for the development of offshore wind energy in Ireland. Dublin Array constitutes two of the seven projects which have been supported by Government within the first phase of offshore wind development in Ireland. These being Bray and Kish Banks.
Dublin Array is located on the Kish and Bray Banks, 10km from the coast of Dublin and Wicklow Counties. The Dublin Array Project is expected to generate around 600-1000 MW, enough electricity to power up to 750,000 homes with clean, renewable, indigenous energy. Subject to a successful updated consent application and subject to investment decision by the project partners, construction could begin in 2024, with the project fully operational in 2026. Dublin Array has the capacity to make a vital contribution to Ireland’s 70% target for renewable energy by 2030.
Dublin Array Project Director, Peter Lefroy, welcomed the announcement: “We welcome the Government’s commitment to progressing the Climate Action Plan targets, and particularly the development of offshore wind in Ireland. Renewable energy, including offshore and onshore wind, can play an even bigger role than currently envisaged to de-carbonise our society.
“Covid-19 has created great uncertainty in many industries and we recognise the Government’s efforts to continue to move forward under such difficult circumstances. This announcement helps maintain important momentum in Ireland’s offshore wind sector and will drive investment and job creation in Ireland in the coming years. This is in addition to the anticipated community benefit programme that the Government has already suggested as part of new renewable development. We look forward to continuing the development of Dublin Array and to playing a leading role in the offshore wind sector in Ireland.”
The Dublin Array project is currently in the development phase; gathering information to refresh the environmental reporting and project design. The data collection will continue into the Summer of 2020.
innogy plans to commence an extensive period of stakeholder and community consultation early in Autumn 2020 so that the views of all stakeholders and interested parties can be taken into consideration as we finalise the project design and move towards submitting planning applications.