A chara, – In his letter (November 28th), Timothy J Ryan states that floating wind farms are not a “solution for the foreseeable future”. He need only look across the water to Scotland, where floating wind turbines have been in operation since 2017 to see that this is not the case.
Mr Ryan attempts to link a reduction in the cost of electricity with the installation of nearshore fixed-bottom turbines. The price per megawatt hour that the Government agreed with developers at the most recent auction was more than double that agreed at the most recent Scottish auction. These schemes, if they were to go ahead, would line the pockets of the developers but they would not reduce the cost of electricity for the average household.
On biodiversity, Mr Ryan is confident that “there is no evidence that fixed offshore wind turbines some 5km offshore cause major biodiversity disruption”. However, the planning application for the proposed Codling Bank scheme predicts that 84 guillemots will be killed annually as a result of the scheme, or 3,000 over the lifetime of the project. The planning application for the Arklow Bank scheme predicts 190 kittiwake deaths annually as a result of the scheme, or approximately 7,000 dead kittiwakes over the lifetime of the project. We know that the survey work (which is ongoing around the coast) and construction phase in particular are extremely disruptive for cetaceans. The seabed, home to kelp and seagrass forests that capture more carbon than forests on land, would be hugely disrupted. Disrupting even one element of an ecosystem can have devastating effects. The cumulative impacts could completely destroy important marine environments.
I wonder what engagement Mr Ryan has had with the coastal communities who are concerned about the proposed nearshore fixed-bottom turbines that he so confidently labels as “selfish”. Our concerns, which are largely related to the impact on the environment and livelihoods, but also those related to visual impact, are valid and deserve to be engaged with, and not dismissed as selfish because someone in Dublin said so.
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We are under significant pressure due to decades of inaction on protecting the environment and addressing climate breakdown and we have been left with little time and a lot to do. That pressure should focus us to do what is actually best, not what Mr Ryan thinks is best. – Is mise,
SIOBHÁN KENNEDY,
Carna,
Co Galway.