Minister Dooley addresses Europe's largest wind energy gathering and outlines Ireland's ambition
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From: Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
- Published on: 10 April 2025
- Last updated on: 12 April 2025
The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, with special responsibility for the Marine, Timmy Dooley, has told leading business figures in the renewable wind energy sector that Ireland is now primed to become a key player in Europe's renewable energy future. Minister Dooley was speaking at a Ministerial Plenary Session at the WindEurope Annual Event 2025 in Copenhagen.
The ministerial session is the most anticipated event of the conference. Participants include a selection of European ministers, officials from the European Commission, as well as senior figures from the world of business. The discussion provided insights into a range of areas within offshore wind, including: volumes and investments; grids; supply chains; and floating wind. The three-day conference is Europe's largest annual renewable wind energy event, with over 15,000 attendees.
The ministerial panel discussion was just one of several high-profile Ireland-related events at WindEurope 2025. Other events included:
- a dedicated 'Ireland Markets Session' focusing on the latest developments in terms of regulation, auctions, policy developments and business opportunities for companies interested in the Irish market. Philip Newsome, Principal Officer – Renewable Electricity Division with responsibility for the development of onshore renewable electricity at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, was a guest speaker at this session
- a networking and information session hosted at the Ireland pavilion by members of the Government of Ireland’s onshore and offshore wind taskforces. At this event, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment launched a progress report on 'Powering Prosperity' – Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy, which was previously launched at WindEurope 2024 in Bilbao
- a panel discussion on co-existence at sea included the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications' head of Marine Planning Policy – Rory O'Leary
Revised National Planning Framework
Minister Dooley has also welcomed the approval by government this week of the revised National Planning Framework (NPF), which is still subject to approval by both houses of the Oireachtas. The revised NPF will play a key role in planning for climate change – ensuring that we achieve our ambitious EU and national climate obligations. In particular, the inclusion of the regional renewable electricity capacity allocations, assigned across our three Regional Assemblies, is a critical step and will facilitate the accelerated roll-out and delivery of renewable electricity infrastructure, ensuring there is a sufficient pipeline of onshore wind projects to underpin Ireland’s commitment of 9 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind by 2030.
On the revised National Planning Framework, Minister Dooley said:
"In the context of increasing the pace of renewables progressing through the planning system, the inclusion of regional renewable electricity targets across the State’s regional assembly area within the revised NPF [National Planning Framework] cannot be overstated. The revised NPF will create a stronger support for renewables at a regional and local level, providing clarity and consistency across the planning system, ensuring that Ireland remains an attractive country in which to invest in renewable energy projects.
"The Revised NPF also acknowledges the clear link between climate action and the potential for investment generation and employment and jobs, including in connection with the offshore wind industry and green technology."
On Ireland's renewable wind energy ambitions, Minister Dooley said:
"Ireland is already a wind energy success story. Irish wind farms provided 48% of Ireland’s power last February, and last January 2025, a significant milestone was reached – when the State reached over 5GW of installed wind capacity – over halfway to the State’s 2030 onshore climate action targets for renewable wind energy.
"Ireland has enormous offshore wind potential – not only to deliver cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy to our homes and businesses – it has the potential to deliver tens of thousands of new green jobs for many communities across the State. From an offshore wind perspective, the government has been accelerating policy in the offshore wind energy at scale, and an all-of-government approach is being applied, through the Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce.
"In recent years, Ireland has achieved a number of important milestones in offshore wind, including: Ireland’s first offshore wind auction, which procured over 3 gigawatts (GW) of capacity from four offshore wind projects; the publication of the State’s first marine spatial plan for offshore wind development – the South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan [DMAP]; and the approved terms and conditions of Ireland’s second offshore wind auction, which will take place later this year."
Notes
Ireland's offshore wind ambition
Climate Action Plan 2024 commits to achieving at least 5GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030. A further 2GW is earmarked for the production of green hydrogen and other non-grid uses. Ireland’s plan-led approach to delivering our offshore wind targets includes a number of overlapping phases:
- Phase One, which corresponds to the relevant projects that competed in the first offshore renewable electricity auction in 2023
- Phase Two, an accelerated work programme, focusing on near-term delivery based on technology with proven scalability in other jurisdictions, and which will procure the additional offshore wind capacity required to meet government's 2030 target; and
- the fully plan-led Future Framework
RESS auctions
Last September, Ireland's Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) 4, secured over 20% increase in Ireland’s renewable energy capacity at lower prices than previous two auctions.
RESS 4 will boost Ireland's renewable energy capacity, bring jobs, community benefit funds and wider benefits to local areas where wind and solar projects are constructed and operated.
The success of RESS auctions depends on the renewable electricity projects supply pipeline, their participation in the auction, along with evolving market, locational and technological considerations. Maintaining a continuous flow of projects – 'a steady drumbeat' – helps to balance the delivery of projects year-on-year to support the connection of renewable energy projects to the electricity network by EirGrid and ESB Networks and provides a level of predictability for the industry and investors. RESS 4 was the fourth of a minimum of five envisaged auctions to occur between 2020 and 2025 which will deliver on the 2030 targets. The design of further planned RESS auction rounds post-2025 will be subject to state aid approval. The RESS provides pathways for renewable developers to plan and develop their projects. It will also allow Ireland to take advantage of new technologies as they emerge.
Offshore wind projects can participate through dedicated offshore auctions.