Wind farms must be far out to sea

All future offshore wind farms in Ireland should be at least 22 kilometres out to sea a Cork county councillor has said.

Speaking at a recent meeting of Cork County Council, Independent representative Marcia D’Alton said that any development closer than 22 kilometres would have a huge negative impact on Ireland’s seascapes and coastal biodiversity.

She said it would also damage both the fishing and tourism industries.

The Carrigaline councillor described a 22 kilometre minimum distance as a “very small ask” considering that Ireland’s marine area is about seven times greater than its land area.

Cllr D’Alton said: “The visual impacts associated with offshore wind facilities are without precedent. The installations are very large, they're enormously tall structures which contrast strongly with natural seascapes.”

Her comments come during a period of public consultation for the Government’s South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) proposal for offshore renewable energy which ends on 6 October.

DMAPs was established to determine the broad area where offshore renewable energy projects can be developed in Ireland.

The plan has identified an area of coastline stretching from the Seven Heads in West Cork to Carnsore Point in county Wexford for potential offshore energy development.

Cllr D’Alton asked elected members to support her request that Cork County Council would submit a proposal calling for a 22 kilometre minimum distance for future offshore wind farms.

Her motion was passed with considerable support from fellow councillors.

She continued: “Our coastline is a tremendously sensitive environment. It's this nearshore coast that homes many of our most environmentally sensitive and often legally designated habitats for biodiversity.

“Fishers have for generations relied on the lobster, crab, and other riches of the nearshore ocean,” the councillor added.

In 2019, the Government published its Climate Action Plan (CAP). One aim of the plan is to provide 80% of the nation’s electricity from renewable energy by 2030, of which 5 gigawatts of electricity is to be provided by offshore wind.

Ireland currently has just one offshore wind farm which was installed in 2004 on the Arklow Bank. It has seven turbines and produces 25 megawatts of electricity. There are 1,000 megawatts in a gigawatt.

An initial group of seven new offshore wind projects have been identified in order to help reach Ireland’s 2030 goal, including the Codling Wind Park off the coast of Wicklow which promises to generate 1,300 megawatts (1.3 gigawatts) of electricity.

Cllr D’Alton said the Codling Wind Park will comprise of over 100 large turbines and will be located between 13 and 22 kilometres from shore.

“Please, let us build in a measure of protection for our residents, our heritage, our seascapes, our tourism, our fishers, and our biodiversity before we start.

“Let us not rely solely on environmental assessments undertaken by experts on behalf of developers. Let us not be guided solely by the industry but rather to learn from our past experiences and the experiences of other countries,” concluded Cllr D’Alton.

There was concern amongst a number of councillors around the impact future wind farms might have on Cork’s fishing industry.

Cllr Michael Hegarty (Fine Gael) said: “We've seen the quotas on various fish that we have lost here and have been reduced, so I think it's important that the sighting and location of these (wind farms) is not going to impact further in the fishing industry because they are suffering enough as it is.”

Independent Cllr Danny Collins added: “Our fishermen have suffered enough by successive governments who have left them down, ministers who have left them down.

“For any such wind farms to go inside their boundaries of fishing could mean unreal devastation for them,” Cllr Collins added.