offshore wind report
Delivering Ireland’s offshore wind ambition
Climate Minister Eamon Ryan TD: Significant milestones on offshore journey Climate change poses one of the greatest challenges facing the world and our shared future. The need to combat the devastating effects it has on our environment, society and economy is urgent, writes Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan TD. We are now seeing a significant call to action, especially here in Ireland, to introduce new measures and practical solutions to help combat climate change and transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable economy. The Government released a new Climate Action Plan in October 2021, which sets out a course of action to reduce Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions and make Ireland carbon 92
neutral by 2050. As part of the Plan, the government has committed to increasing our generation of electricity from renewable sources. We need to increase this proportion to up to 80 per cent by 2030 to meet the set targets. To achieve this, we must switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as wind energy. One of our first milestones is to reach 5GW of offshore renewable energy.
electricity in Ireland was first introduced
The use of wind turbines to generate
offshore wind energy is enormous.
with the commission of first commercial wind farm in Bellacorrick, County Mayo in 1992. Since then, significant progress in technology, policy, and legislation has laid the ground for Ireland to become one of the leading producers of wind energy in Europe. With Ireland’s maritime area seven times the size of its landmass and our location at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, the potential for
