Facilitation of Offshore Renewable Energy by Commercial Ports in Ireland

Developing offshore renewable energy (ORE) is integral to achieving Ireland’s Climate Change ambitions with a target of 5GW of offshore wind by 2030 and the potential of at least 30GW of floating offshore wind power as set out in the Programme for Government and the Climate Action Plan 2021.

Pending a review of overall National Ports Policy in 2022, the Department in conjunction with the Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO), carried out an assessment of the options for Irish commercial State Ports to facilitate the ORE sector and assist in Ireland achieving its emission reduction targets.

The key recommendation arising out of the assessment is that a number of port facilities will be required for deployment activity and a multiple of ports will be needed for O&M operations. This will ultimately allow investments that are commercially viable in the long-term progress without undermining the ability of any port to meet its primary obligations in relation to the facilitation of international trade.

This multiport approach will help maximise the economic benefits at regional as well as national level in terms of the creation of jobs and new SME enterprise that can support the development of the ORE industry.

A Policy Statement signaling the multiport approach can be found at the link below. The Policy statement is in line with existing National Ports Policy which already recognises the potential role for commercial State Ports in servicing the Offshore Energy Sector.

The Policy statement sets out:

• The background EU and National targets with regard to ORE

• That around the Irish coast, ORE projects will develop in several phases and that a multiport approach is the most optimal Policy facilitating a strong response from the ports sector and private entities within ports.

• That eligible TEN-T ports can apply for funding for ORE related port infrastructure under the Connecting Europe facility (CEF) which is the funding instrument for the EU's Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

• Other opportunities in terms of wave and tidal renewable energy in the waters around Ireland and the potential for very large-scale green hydrogen and green ammonia projects, although these are very much pre-commercial technologies at this stage.

The Department of Transport will establish a Ports Co-ordination Group to coordinate port responses and maintain policy alignment.