GREEN ENERGY:THE GOVERNMENTS of Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland have launched plans for a joined-up energy grid involving €7 billion of investment in offshore wind, wave and tidal energy that could generate enough electricity to power 2.8 million homes.
Backed by European industrial giants ABB, Siemens and Alstom, the ISLES project aims to tap into up to €4.6 billion of funding that will be available from the European Investment Bank and the €9.1 billion that is available from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility for investment in trans-European energy infrastructure.
The plans foresee up to 5.6GW of wind, wave and tidal energy being generated by 2020 in Donegal, Louth, Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford, Co Antrim and Co Down.
The first stage of the project will involve linking up electricity grids in Scotland and Northern Ireland, while the second stage would involve further interconnection between the east coast of Ireland and Wales.
Envisaged for Scotland are 1.5GW of offshore wind capacity – involving up to 750 turbines, about 300MW of offshore wind in Donegal and about the same level in Northern Ireland combined with about 200MW of tidal energy and 500MW of interconnection to Scotland.
The second stage of the project will involve 3.4GW of offshore wind along Ireland’s east coast in addition to 2GW of interconnection with Wales.
Key Irish companies to benefit from the project could include Openhydro, Wavebob and Oriel Wind Power.
While tidal and wave turbines are likely to be manufactured or assembled here, most other jobs will be created in the fields of assembly, engineering, project management and maintenance, rather than wind turbine manufacturing.
However, separate plans understood to be under consideration by the Irish and British governments could see additional wind capacity and pumped hydropower backup – involving €5 billion of further investment and the creation of 3,000 jobs – from the Spirit of Ireland initiative, which would link into the ISLES grid.
And according to recent reports, Germany’s Enercon, the fourth largest manufacturer of wind turbines in the world, is considering opening a factory on the west coast connected with the Spirit of Ireland/Natural Hydro Energy project.