ESB seeks site investigations licence for Irish offshore wind project

Irish utility ESB is seeking a licence to conduct site investigations for a potential wind farm off the coasts of Dublin and Wicklow.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is holding a consultation on the application from December 23, 2021 to Jauary 30, 2022.

The project is called Sea Stacks Offshore Wind and according to the application documents published by the government, it could have a capacity of about 800 MW. The site is located about 12 km (7.5 miles) from shore. It is one of the preferred projects that ESB has identified as a result of a site selection process over 2019 and 2020 along Ireland’s entire coast. The company will now look to take these sites to the next stage in the process of assessing their feasibility.

The licence application has been submitted by ESB Wind Development Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ESB, and concerns only site investigation works, including geophysical, geotechnical, oceanographic and environmental surveys.

Ireland has an ambition of having 5 GW of offshore wind power capacity by 2030.

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