With 40 acres of sea for every Irish man, woman and child, vast potential remains to be tapped, writes LORNA SIGGINS
WHEN GEOSCIENTISTS at NUI Galway can find north Clare’s Aileens to be as good as the perfect wave, and international surfers can find its twin in Prowlers, life should not be too difficult for an advocate of Ireland’s ocean energy potential.
However, politicians don’t tend to be surfing dudes, and the prevailing narrow vision of maritime resources could result in a lost opportunity, according to James Ryan, a consultant in the sector.
Perhaps that should read “another lost opportunity”. Ryan, who has been contracted by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to assist in installing a grid-connected full-scale wave power test site off north Mayo, previously worked in aquaculture.
Based in Mayo, he was one of the pioneers in the sector at a time when it was developing on the west coast, and looking to Norway.
“Norway’s industry, with annual sales of almost €2.5 billion, is worth 36 times ours now,” he says. “Worse still, in the five years to 2007, Norwegian production doubled while Ireland’s declined by 35 per cent.
“The difference is largely accounted for by the Norwegian government’s long-term commitment to developing its maritime resources, regardless of short-term ups and downs. Unlike Ireland, which did away with its department of the marine, Norway has its ministry of fisheries and coastal affairs which has a dynamic strategic plan, strong and supportive administration and a long-term commitment to aquaculture as a major national industry,” he says.
“On the other hand, Ireland has no long-term plan, and aquaculture development has been stifled by a somnambulant public administration which has effectively made it almost impossible to get a licence to farm fish,” he says.
“Ireland has become famous for its production of organic-farmed fish and, although customers are literally begging for increased supplies, regulatory inaction prevails.”
As Ryan pointed out at the recent Rolling Sun Book Festival, this island’s 220 million acres of offshore territory is equivalent to “approximately 40 acres of sea area for every man, woman and child”.
“We have a modest fishing industry, worth about €400 million annually. We have some gas coming ashore in Kinsale, a small wind farm in the Irish Sea and a lacklustre marine aquaculture sector,” he says.
“Other countries do appreciate their seas. Norway, for instance, has the same population as Ireland and annually exports over €5 billion worth of fish arising from its fishing and aquaculture industries.
“Or take our nearest neighbour, Britain, whose waters coalesce with ours and which has annual fishing and aquaculture production of £1.4 billion, an offshore wind sector currently producing power with an annual value of £120 million,” he says.
Britain has “big plans” for its wave and tidal power sector, projecting production capacity of up to 3,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020. Ireland, Scotland and Portugal are competing to become for wave and tide what Denmark is for wind.
However, there are genuine fears that Ireland will lose out to Scotland, in spite of the recent road map published recently by Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan.
This frustration was expressed earlier this month by Harvey Applebe, project director of Tonn Energy, a joint venture development between Swedish power utility Vattenfall and Wavebob.
Specific actions are required, Appelbe believes. The State must build its full-scale test site so that wave energy development work can start in Irish waters, and use EU funding for a pilot wave farm project, he says.
Early grid connection is essential if the target of 500 MW by 2020 is to be met and the Government should pick a date for a “call for proposals” to develop wave farms in Ireland to show that Ireland will, by then, be open for business.
Crucially, details of a modernised foreshore lease process – promised by Minister for Environment John Gormley – must be published, he says, and a small but competitive financial support package developed to woo early investment.
There are other factors at play. The International Energy Agency last week predicted a global gas glut, which could last a decade and affect enthusiasm for renewables.
Ocean energy technology is still at a developmental phase, though Ryan says that there have been “promising” device tests.
However, Government recognition of the strategic significance of the maritime resource is essential, Ryan believes.
Gormley recently confirmed that there were 700 foreshore licence applications stacked up in his department, with dozens more for aquaculture stalled in the Department of Fisheries in Clonakilty, Co Cork.
Ryan believes a dedicated commission for the marine sector could “set up pre-licensed marine areas for wave and fish farms and promote them to investors, in much the same way as the IDA sets up advance factories on land”.
He believes that, in a 20-year timeframe, it could oversee a marine aquaculture industry worth perhaps €1 billion annually in organically farmed fish; an ocean energy and offshore wind industry producing electricity worth another €1 billion or so; and a marine technology industry focused on wave and tidal generating systems, large-scale remotely operated ocean fish farms and sophisticated work boats and infrastructure for both.
“Thus we would add a total annual value of €4 billion to our maritime economy,” he says.
The Marine Institute, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, third-level colleges and the information and communications technology industry can provide the research and development capacity, he says.
“All that is required is the same kind of vision at the Cabinet level of government which inspired the construction of the Ardnacrusha power station in the 1930s and the modernisation of the Irish economy in the 1960s,” Ryan says.
