Fishermen’s deal with Swedish firm clears way for giant offshore wind farm

Fishermen have traditionally opposed offshore wind farms because of the impact they have on their access to fishing grounds, but a new partnership in Donegal is looking to turn that relationship on its head, with potentially massive energy set to be generated.

In the next 18 months, Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation, alongside Hexicon, a Swedish firm that specialises in floating offshore wind farm technology and Sinbad Marine Services, a company in Killybegs that provides services to fishermen, is set to submit a planning application to the new maritime regulator, Mara, for a €3 billion investment in an offshore floating wind farm off the south coast of Donegal.

The site, when fully operational, could produce up to two gigawatts of energy every year. Almost six gigawatts is generated on the island of Ireland each year, meaning the site could produce more than a third of the energy needs for the island when it is fully operational.

‘The fishing industry here joined forces mainly because we were aware of all the issues on the east and south coast and the fishermen and the wind developers were at loggerheads’

Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) spokesman Justin Moran says Ireland has the capacity to develop enough electricity through offshore wind farms to be energy independent by the end of the 2030s.

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Sean O’Donoghue, chief executive of Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) says his group approached Hexicon rather than the other way around.

“We call this a new approach, and probably a first in the world. The fishing industry here joined forces mainly because we were aware of all the issues on the east and south coast and the fishermen and the wind developers were at loggerheads.”

Many companies have approached the KFO in the past with “lines drawn on the maps”, according to O’Donoghue. This approach drives them “crackers,” he says.

Own principles

KFO decided instead to establish its own set of principles and see if they could find a partner that agreed with them. It then made its approach to Hexicon.

The six principles are:

– Ensuring the involvement of the fishing industry from the start of the process;

– Developers committing to not drawing lines on a map before “meaningful consultation”;

– Offshore wind situated in locations to reduce “visual impacts on coastlines”;

– Biodiversity to be protected;

– The local community to benefit;

– Wind technology to help deliver alternative fuels for the marine and fisheries sector.

The impact of Brexit on the fishing industry has also played a large role in this initiative, O’Donoghue says. “One of our driving factors as well was that Donegal and Killybegs in particular got really badly hit with the Brexit deal. This year alone, we are losing over 12,000 tonnes of mackerel valued at €18 million. Mackerel is the mainstay of the entire Irish fishing industry, the main money-spinner.”

The site, which has not yet been fully determined, will be at least 50km off the coast of Donegal, a factor which was “very significant” in the decision to engage with Hexicon, O’Donoghue says.

Hexicon and KFO have now signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on the project.

Marcus Thor, the chief executive at Hexicon, says there doesn’t need to be a “conflict” between wind developers and fishermen which is what happens “99 per cent” of the time.

“I’m extremely optimistic and enthusiastic about this test case,” he says.

O’Donoghue says no fee was paid to the KFO by Hexicon, but adds that they might enter into a formal partnership at a later date.

‘Tipping point’

In almost every other part of the world, fishermen are effectively paid compensation to ensure projects get through. This was not going to be the case in Ireland, Thor says. Instead, a genuine approach to engagement and a real partnership were the priorities.

Offshore floating wind farms were now at a “tipping point” of being commercially viable, Thor adds.

Building an offshore floating wind farm that is 50km off the coast is not that far away from the coast if the site is big enough, he says.

“We’re not constrained by water depth. Floating wind is really about building at large scale. A two-gigawatt wind farm is a massive piece of infrastructure investment that comes at a big, big cost.”

But he says the wind resource out in the Atlantic is “incredible”.

Hexicon is expert in the “complete development phase”, Thor explains, but it does not have the balance sheet to develop the site on its own. “There will be, at some point, other partners with bigger balance sheets involved.”

“Just a gigawatt, that’s a couple of billions euros,” he says. “It’s going to be $3 billion to build a gigawatt [offshore wind farm].”

The challenges facing Hexicon are the same facing others in the sector, Moran says. The establishment of a new maritime regulator early next year is the first challenge. There also needs to be a special offering for offshore floating wind energy the next time Eirgrid runs an auction for renewable energy.

Energy auctions

Eirgrid runs an auction at specified times where it agrees to buy energy for the national grid at an agreed price over a certain period of time from different energy providers. Currently, it is more expensive to produce energy on floating offshore wind farms than from fixed-bottom offshore wind farms. This means that a special market would have to be established to encourage companies to move into the offshore floating wind-farm sector.

Engagement with the Government and regulators has now begun. O’Donoghue says they recognised the Government policy was to “go after marine renewable energy”, particularly offshore wind. They have a number of meetings set up with Eamon Ryan and others later this year. “We are getting very positive vibes from the Government on this,” he said.

O’Donoghue said they would be emphasising to the Government the unique partnership model KFO and Hexicon had entered into. “What’s happening on the east coast, is a recipe for disaster. There’s going to be, in my view, significant legal battles going on.” Other fishermen’s groups were now looking to Killybegs as a template, he says.

Connection to the grid is a key ask for Hexicon and the KFO.

“The northwest was being written off by Eirgrid in terms of connections. We are managing to get the Government to really rethink that. There’s no point in having all this energy in the right place but we have no grid connection. This is a key issue as part of this project,” O’Donoghue says. “Eirgrid has to face up to the reality of energy security for Ireland and they have to get their act together.”

Moran says that the national grid is “not fit for purpose”. The grid needs to be “reinforced” in the northwest, he adds.

It sees the potential [for] Ireland to become a ‘major contributor to a pan-European renewable energy generation and transmission system’

A spokesman for Eirgrid said the Government was committed to achieving five gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 through developments on the eastern and southern coasts.

In parallel, it sees the potential of “at least 30 gigawatts of offshore floating wind power in the deeper waters in the Atlantic”, enabling Ireland to become a “major contributor to a pan-European renewable energy generation and transmission system”.

Investment will take place in the northwest, with a blueprint identifying the need for several new projects specifically to facilitate new renewable generation.

In Donegal, additional capacity will be delivered, with a new development called the northwest project, the uprating of the Clogher to Drumkeen circuit and a reconfiguration of the network.

Environmental concerns

Environmental concerns are also addressed by Hexicon and KFO. Thor says that floating wind has “less of an environmental impact” than fixed-base offshore wind farms. Hexicon has special technology that allows it to have two turbines on one base, which means they can squeeze more turbines into a smaller space.

However, the scale of the project is huge, with the final site expected to be up to 200sq km.

Alongside Science Foundation Ireland, Hexicon is co-funding an 18-month research project to build a multi-objective decision-making and constraint-mapping tool. This will be used to identify suitable regions for floating wind farms using data sets which include biodiversity, sediment types, protected sites, geotechnical and geophysical with commercial fisheries data and expert interpretation provided through the KFO and other marine stakeholders. Researchers from UCC and UCD have been brought on board to help with the project.

‘We are better off to set the guidelines and the goal posts so we still have a thriving fishing industry’

The project is still some way off, with neither Hexicon or KFO expecting the wind farm to be up and running for another six to seven years at least. “We have a very rough idea that it will be off the south coast of Donegal,” O’Donoghue says.

He acknowledges that there is a financial opportunity for the KFO in seeing the project succeed. “We see that there are opportunities for our vessels to be involved in this. We are better off to set the guidelines and the goalposts so we still have a thriving fishing industry.”

He also says that Killybegs had a “vast experience” in servicing offshore developments and had supported Corrib for years, something that impressed Thor.

The development will support jobs in the area, but neither man is willing to give a figure on just how big the benefit for the local community could be, just yet. Thor says: “It takes a bit of time to match the needs with the opportunities and possibilities, but it is an important point. In any gigawatt development you should expect a lot of development in the neighbouring areas too.”

“We see this as a game changer for Donegal,” O’Donoghue says. “We see this project not tomorrow or next year, but in 15 years’ time. Rather than all the graduates in Donegal, Sligo and Derry leaving, instead they will be migrating back. We really see this as for the next generation as really being a game-changer.”