Sir, – Many renowned nature conservationists are clear that offshore wind energy risks losing its undoubted positive potential unless it is subject to a range of internationally accepted environmental safeguards.
For example, the World Wildlife Fund position paper Nature Protection and Offshore Renewable Energy in the European Union (May 2021) states: “Offshore renewable infrastructure is still infrastructure. It needs to be subject to best-practice planning and design and requires rigorous evaluation using both environmental impact assessments (EIA) and strategic environmental assessments (SEA). When developing offshore renewable projects, it is therefore crucial to adopt an ecosystem-based approach”.
This is where Ireland fails miserably. We have no ecosystem-based planning for offshore renewable energy and no Strategic Environmental Assessment has been undertaken to assess the cumulative impacts of the vast array of proposed projects on the living marine environment. When applications come before An Bord Pleanála, the Environmental Impact Assessment Reports that will be presented will have been commissioned and paid for by the developer. Should we naively put aside our fears that, in the currently chosen locations, offshore wind could result in avoidable long-term biodiversity loss? For some of us, this is a risk that is not worth taking when far less biodiversity-rich sites are available. – Yours, etc
GRAINNE ELLIOTT,
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ROSEMARY KEVANY,
Blue Ireland Coalition,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – In response to Justin Moran of Wind Energy Ireland (Letters, August 31st), we couldn’t agree more with him that floating wind energy is a fantastic technology and, like him, we too wish that we were moving quicker to “make Ireland a leader in floating wind energy”. However, in his attempt to normalise the proposed installation of wind farms within the nearshore (ie less than 22km) by referring to other developments around Europe, he neglects to state whether they are situated on or close to sandbanks and being at the 6km distance being proposed off the Wicklow coast.
For the record, the South East Coastal Protection Alliance’s objection to plans currently before An Bord Pleanála is entirely based on concerns about the ecosystem dependent on the Arklow Bank and the five designated special areas of conservation along the Wicklow/Wexford coastline, all of which will inevitably be damaged (however unintentionally) by the proposed installation of up to 56 of the biggest turbines in the world in an area designated as an Annex 1 habitat under the European Habitats Directive. The South East Coastal Protection Alliance is not against the very necessary investment in wind energy, nor do we wish to see it occur in any place other than in our backyard. We simply wish to see this happen directly further out to sea.
While floating wind energy may be the long-term goal, everyone’s interests can be served by moving away from the Arklow Bank with the technology being promoted under the current application in front of An Bord Pleanála. The developers are well able to install fixed base turbines in the waters further out in the Irish Sea. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL HIGGINS,
WILLIAM HOURIE,
OLIVER STAUNTON,
South East Coastal
Protection Alliance,
Brittas Bay,
Co Wicklow.