ESB Unveils Irish Offshore Wind Ambitions

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Ireland's state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB) (Dublin) is planning to build or acquire a fleet of offshore windfarms in the Irish Sea.

The company has released a tender for the "the provision of renewable energy marine services related to offshore wind farms." The windfarms will range in size from 200 to 500-megawatts (MW) but could be bigger, the tender stated. The news comes a month after the company continued its drive into the U.K. energy market after signing a deal with REG Power Management (Guildford, England) for delivery of two onshore windfarms in Scotland with a combined capacity of 200 MW. For additional information, see August 10, 2017, article--Ireland's ESB Signs 200-Megawatt Scottish Wind Deal.

"ESB plans to develop or acquire the offshore wind farms commencing in 2018, through a pipeline of projects which are currently going through the consenting process," the company stated. "The size of individual projects is expected to range between 200 MW and 500 MW, although some projects could be larger. The location of these initial offshore wind farms is expected to be in the Irish Sea."

The high level scope of services includes but is not limited to the following:

• Offshore geophysical surveys
• Geotechnical investigation and sampling
• Marine Archaeological Survey
• Source and Deploy Floating Lidar Wind Measurement Buoy
• Desktop UXO risk assessment and report
• Site characterisation assessment
• Ground model development
• Complete factual and interpretive reporting
• Risk assessments and method statements development

"Offshore technologies are now well established and the cost of electricity production from these sources continues to decline," the ESB told media. "We are working on early and mid-stage development opportunities in Ireland and the U.K. There will be a consenting phase after which the projects can move to construction, which is likely to be in the early 2020s. ESB typically deploys a range of funding options in its projects."

Today the small 25-MW Arklow Offshore Windfarm, commissioned in 2003, is the only operational offshore project in the Irish Sea.

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