Ireland's Controversial Shannon LNG Terminal Project Revived

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--New plans to revive a 650 million-euro (US$770.5 million) liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the west coast of Ireland have been revived by New York-based global energy infrastructure company New Fortress Energy Incorporated (New York, New York).

The company is expected to submit new plans to Irish planning authority An Bord Pleanála to construct an offshore LNG terminal in the Shannon estuary alongside a 600-megawatt (MW) power plant with an integrated 120-MW battery storage facility. The company shelved plans for the controversial Shannon Technology & Energy Park in 2019 after a high profile campaign by leading climate action groups and U.S. celebrities against the importation of fracked gas.

The project--Ireland's first LNG terminal--will be transformative for the region, claimed Sam Abdalla, vice president of project development at New Fortress Energy. "This first phase of development--the 650 million-euro power plant and terminal--will create 270 construction jobs over a three-year construction period with 70 long-term jobs, once operational. The Shannon Technology & Energy Park proposed development is privately funded, and government or EU funding is not being sought."

He added: "The development would occupy 100 acres of the 600 acre site, and the site masterplan anticipates a follow-on development for a major data centre campus with up to eight data halls which would create up to 400 additional long-term jobs. The proposed development will provide a major energy infrastructure asset that addresses Ireland's looming shortfall in stable electricity generation and overcomes the issue of energy isolation. By doing so it will support the transition to 70% renewable electricity generation by 2030. The power plant and terminal are future-proofed with the ability to transition to hydrogen gas once the technology and public policy are fully developed."

Industrial Info is tracking all of the key projects for the development, which will face an uphill battle as the government wants to ban fracked gas, and the position right now is that no LNG project can progress until there is a review of the security of energy supply for Ireland's electricity and natural gas systems. The original LNG project first got the go-ahead more than 10 years ago and had its permit extended for an additional five years in 2018.

In 2020, Industrial Info reported that the project had hit a major roadblock after the European Court of Justice stated that its current grant of permission was invalid. For additional information, see May 11, 2020, article - Ireland's First LNG Project Could Be Mothballed. Later in 2020, the Irish High Court made formal orders overturning An Bord Pleanála's extension of planning permission for the Shannon LNG project.

Friends of the Earth, which helped quash the project last September, maintained that the new Shannon LNG Terminal application is unlikely to succeed "despite marketing hype." It added the planning authority "must have regard to a Government Policy Statement published last month, that included a moratorium on the development of LNG import terminals pending the completion of an energy security review."

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