Staff shortages in the planning system hinders wind development
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Staff shortages in the planning system have contributed to headaches in Ireland’s wind industry which has been beleaguered by planning delays for years, warned an expert group.
Industry representative body Wind Energy Ireland urged the government to add skilled staff with to local authority planning departments to assess an increasing amount of planning applications for “critical renewable energy infrastructure like wind and solar farms.”
“Giving the planning system the resources it needs to ensure applications for renewable energy and electricity grid infrastructure projects are thoroughly, but quickly, assessed is a vital investment for our future,” said Noel Cunniffe, Wind Energy Ireland chief executive.
Mr Cunniffe made his comments in Wind Energy Ireland’s pre-budget submission where he warned Ireland is “simply not building wind farms quickly enough to keep up with the scale of renewable energy deployment we need."
"This means higher bills, more fossil fuel imports and even more carbon emissions," he added.
Among its recommendations ahead of the October budget, Wind Energy Ireland also called for the establishment of an Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Port Infrastructure Fund to aid the financing of port infrastructure for offshore wind development.
Academic research previously found that at least two ports are needed to deliver Ireland’s 2030 offshore wind targets but there is currently no port in the Republic that is ready for to be used to construct large scale offshore wind farms.
“The recent EU funding announcement for the Port of Cork to develop its facilities to support the growth of Ireland’s offshore wind industry was welcome news. However, funding like this [is] for one port,” said Mr Cunniffe.
The industry body forecasted that the first phase of Ireland’s offshore wind farms will be built in the coming years depending on the development of ports, however port development is also subject to planning processes which have long mired the industry with lengthy timelines.
The organisation also urged the Government to inject increased investment into grid infrastructure and energy storage systems to conserve electricity generation from renewable sources during milder months and create less demand of fossil fuels.
Elsewhere, other governments have ramped up investment activity in the grid structure to support the global renewable energy industry.
The US directly invested $2.2bn into its grid systems while the UK recently announced that it will invest £3.4bn in new grid infrastructure.
Meanwhile, recent analysis by Cornwall Insight suggested that the island of Ireland will narrowly miss this 80% target with the report forecasting 74% by 2030.
Lisa Foley, principal consultant at research group Cornwall Insight recently said that while there has been significant policy announcements this year designed to incentivise the development of offshore wind, onshore wind however has seen a significant downward growth trajectory recently.