On 22 January 2019, an announcement was made that ESB and Parkwind, which has been developing the Oriel Offshore Wind project off the coast of Louth, have entered into a partnership for the Oriel project, as well as ESB’s Clogherhead project.
This has been a welcome announcement in light of the many discussions regarding Ireland’s climate change track record. The combination of the ESB/ Parkwind partnership and SSE’s plans to expand Ireland’s only commercial offshore wind farm, Arklow Bank, means that at least 1.3 GW of Ireland’s power could start coming from offshore wind during the early 2020s. This represents around 30% of Ireland’s Project 2040 ambitions to support up to 4.5GW of new renewables by 2030.