ESB INTERNATIONAL intends to begin building the State’s first full-scale ocean energy project off the west coast early next year.
The target date for generation is 2015, when the WestWave project could become northwest Europe’s first farm of its type, ESBI ocean energy project manager James Tedd said yesterday.
Harnessing the ocean resource could reduce energy costs by 3 to 4 per cent, and could be part of a €9 billion industry by 2030, he told the Association of Irish Regions conference in the Marine Institute in Galway.
Four sites, on the Mullet peninsula and Achill Island, Co Mayo, Slyne Head, Co Galway, and north Clare, are under consideration for the project he said.
WestWave was now looking at nearshore areas on the west coast, and would make a final site selection shortly.
It is also working with four key technology partners,with a view to selecting the best device. These include Wavebob, Ocean Energy, Aquamarine Power, which is testing off Scotland’s Orkney islands, and Pelamis.
WestWave has been approved by the Government as one of two Irish bids for the €4.5 billion in funding set aside by the European Union under the New Entrants Reserve (NER) 300 programme for low carbon technologies.
The company is seeking €18 million in NER funding, but the project is expected to cost at least €40 million. It has also applied to the European Investment Bank for funding for the five megawatt project.
The Government has set a target of 500 MW in renewables by 2020, and the ESB’s strategy aimed to reduce its own carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, and to be “net-zero” in carbon emissions by 2050, he said.
It hoped to derive at least one-third of its electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020, and ocean energy would provide a major segment of that.
The potential of Killybegs, Co Donegal, as a service port for wind and wave energy was also outlined at the conference by Donegal County manager Séamus Neely. It was evident that the Atlantic seaboard’s renewable potential could help to meet the energy deficit in Europe created by Germany’s abandonment of nuclear power, he said, but much depended on improving grid connections.
Under new legislation, local authorities would also have responsibility for foreshore licensing, as the current delays experienced by projects meant that they could lose “valuable windows”, he said.
