DUBLIN ARRAY UNLIKELY IN THE NEAR FUTURE - KENNY

Posted on September 16, 2014 3:15 PM   |   Permanent Link   

Labour TD Sean Kenny has said that the much criticised Dublin Array will not be going ahead any time soon.

"I have been looking into the status of the Dublin Array project, which is the proposed bank of wind turbines that would be placed out to sea in Dublin Bay. This project, like other proposed offshore renewable energy plans, is currently paused in the absence of a number of enabling factors, including a Market Support Tariff and an Inter-Governmental Agreement on the exports of renewable energy, within the EU's 2020 timeframe, which, in the case of the UK, stalled last April and is now a post 2020 proposition."

"Last February, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, produced an Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan that outlined a much needed policy framework for the renewable energy sector and how it might add to the economic recovery."

"By way of implementing that plan, a Steering Group, chaired by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, has been established to work across three separate areas - Environment, Infrastructure and Jobs - and work in these key areas will provide guidance regarding decision-making on planning, infrastructure and project development. As part of that work, the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG) is also reviewing its approach to the offshore wind energy applications."

"The work of the Steering Group is very much in its infancy, and an interim review of the plan is scheduled for 2017 with a full review to be carried out by 2020. So, in short, in the absence of these crucial enablers and an established route to market, the Dublin Array is quite a way off, if it ever happens at all."