Security concerns around offshore windfarms 'overwhelmingly the number one issue'
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Security concerns over the protection of offshore windfarms is “overwhelmingly the number one issue” across Europe, but is not featuring in discussions here, the head of Ireland’s wind industry has said.
Noel Cunniffe, chief executive of Wind Energy Ireland, said the protection of energy infrastructure should be examined “an awful lot more” in this country given commitments to massively boost renewable energy to meet legally-binding EU targets on reducing CO emissions.
He said security concerns, including ensuring security of supply, were additional arguments for developing renewable energy.
His comments, made at the Institute of International and European Affairs, come as a new document shows that almost 80% of Ireland’s energy supply, primarily fossil fuels, is imported.
The Energy in Ireland 2024 report said energy import dependency “is one of the simplest and most widely used indicators” of a country’s energy security.
The 200-page report, produced by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, said fossil fuels remained the “dominant source” of Ireland’s energy, accounting for 83% of our energy, with just 14% from renewable sources.
In his address, Mr Cunniffe said that, at a meeting last week of Wind Europe, an industry body, security concerns were “overwhelmingly” the biggest issue.
“The number one issue in other European countries is around security and I’m not hearing much about it in Ireland and, to be honest, that’s a bit of a concern," he said. "It’s something we need to be thinking about much more.
“It’s actually another argument to develop our own domestic supply of energy.”
Physical and cyber security of maritime infrastructure — from windfarms to undersea energy pipelines and data cables — is a major issue across northern Europe on the back of suspected sabotage operations.
Mr Cunniffe sits on the Government’s Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce, which has eight departments as full members, but the Department of Defence is not one of them and only has observer status.
Mr Cunniffe said that power sector CO emissions must reduce by 75% by 2030.
He said a key enabler for expanding offshore wind energy was a massive State investment in ports. This is in order to store turbines, dredge port entrances to allow for very large ships and build the necessary piers to take the weight of equipment.
He said Belfast is the only port on the island that can do this but that it can only handle so much and that another port was needed. He welcomed the €99m investment for Cork Port to achieve this.
He said the “biggest barrier” in Ireland in meeting our renewable energy and reduced CO requirements was energy grid capacity. Mr Cunniffe said the biggest constraint in expanding grid capacity was “public acceptance”.
He said the level of opposition in places like Kildare and Meath some years ago badly hit this expansion, which had been alleviated by efforts to do some work underground.
The Energy in Ireland report said Ireland had committed to meet EU obligations to increase its renewable energy share to 43% by 2030, from its current level of 15.3%, which was “among the lowest in Europe”.
It said Ireland’s demand for electricity had grown every year for the last 10 years and that the commercial sector was the “dominant driver”.
It said demand for electricity from data centres increased by 412% since 2015 and now accounted for a fifth of all electricity demand in Ireland, compared to EU average of 3%.
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