Irish and Scottish ministers joined companies, researchers, government departments, and agencies in the offshore wind sector, recently to promote collaboration between Ireland and Scotland in harnessing the full economic development potential of offshore wind in both countries and beyond. 

'Advancing the Offshore Wind Opportunity: Bridging Irish and Scottish Perspectives' explored opportunities for collaboration on joint initiatives, to share expertise, and develop partnerships that can maximise the economic benefit of offshore wind energy to both countries.  

Enterprise minister Peter Burke, environment minister Eamon Ryan and trade promotion minister Dara Calleary were joined by Scotland’s climate action, minister Gillian Martin at the event, which focused on offshore wind supply chains, RDI and skills, and regulation, planning and infrastructure.  

The event was an action from the Department Enterprise Trade and Employment’s recently published Powering Prosperity – Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy.  

Successful, vibrant, and impactful new offshore wind energy sector

At the core of Powering Prosperity is the ambition to build a successful, vibrant, and impactful new offshore wind energy sector by the end of this decade, and to ensure that sector creates significant value and up to 5,000 jobs in offshore wind energy and related industries for the people of Ireland.  

Minister Burke said: “It is great to have the opportunity to engage with Minister Martin, as well as with companies and researchers in the offshore wind industry across the two days. Ireland can make a real impact in the delivery of offshore renewable energy, both domestically and internationally.

"This week’s event with Scotland shows that we are serious about realising our ambitions to develop a successful and impactful offshore wind industry in Ireland, to be a world leader in this space in terms of building the capacity of Irish companies to work on international offshore wind projects and to be a global leader in research, development, and innovation in wind energy.  
 
“We hope this event will lead to ongoing collaboration with Scotland in the offshore wind sector at governmental level and between companies and the research community. Both countries have ambitious targets in relation to offshore wind and, working together, we can achieve far more than going this road alone.” 

Environment minister Eamon Ryan said:  “Ireland has taken a number of significant steps towards delivering offshore wind energy over the last year including our first successful offshore wind auction, the establishment of the Maritime Area Regularity Authority, the publication of our first Draft Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for our south coast, as well as the future framework for offshore renewable energy, and 'Powering Prosperity'.

"Together these set a roadmap for how Ireland can create an offshore renewable energy sector of scale to achieve our climate and energy targets beyond 2030, while also bolstering the security and prosperity of the state. 

“This event with Scotland demonstrates our commitment to working with like-minded countries in addressing common challenges, and developing joint solutions as we navigate the pathway to 37GW of offshore renewable energy by 2050.

"This is a big target for a country of our size, but it is achievable, and part of realising that will be to work with countries like Scotland in ensuring that all parts of the system, including regulation, planning and infrastructure, research and development, and supply chains are in place to deliver the wind farms.” 

Background 

Ireland has one of the best offshore renewable energy resources in the world, providing a strong and consistent wind supply. To fully harness the vast potential for clean, renewable energy from our seas, a suite of policies across government have been, or are in the process of being developed, to ensure offshore renewable energy (ORE) projects are delivered in line with the target to deliver at least 37GW of ORE capacity by 2050.

A key enabler of these targets is the work of the Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce (OWDT) chaired by DECC. DETE, in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, leads on the work of Workstream 7 under the OWDT, which is focused on the supply chain, and also sits on a number of the other Workstreams to feed into their work and the overall work of the OWDT. 

Ireland’s target to generate at least 37GW of ORE capacity by 2050 is expected to be achieved primarily from offshore wind energy (OWE), and fits within the 260GW target by 2050 for OWE of the North Seas Energy Cooperation, of which Ireland is a member, the 300GW target by 2050 of the European Union and a 657GW global target.

These targets represent a significant economic development opportunity for Ireland in terms of developing an OWE industry capable of serving both domestic and international projects and maximising the benefits of future renewable energy use.  

Key Ambitions of Powering Prosperity – Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy 

Ireland, by 2030, will aim to: 

1. Develop an innovative enterprise ecosystem, with indigenous and multinational companies, that will provide world-leading service to the offshore wind sector. 

2. Dramatically scale up the enterprise base that will service the offshore wind sectors in Ireland and around the world. 

3. Deliver up to 5,000 jobs in the offshore wind sector and related industries.  

4. Maximise opportunities for companies and investors to develop a vibrant and successful supply chain.   

5. Proactively assist enterprise, workers, and the RD&I ecosystem in availing of these opportunities through targeted funding and supports. 

6. Seek to establish an Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence and a new Floating Offshore Wind Demonstrator to support growth and innovation. 

7. Pursue strategic partnerships with like-minded countries in Europe and beyond. 

8. Work with stakeholders to develop world-class property solutions powered by renewable energy. 

9. In collaboration with other Departments, develop major industrial hubs around key deployment and O&M ports. 

10. Transform Ireland’s regional capability, and deliver opportunity for the people of Ireland, throughout Ireland, by developing industrial hubs and balanced regional economic growth. 

The strategy, covering 2024 and 2025, includes 40 actions including: 

• The establishment of an Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (OWCE) to enable offshore wind supply chain companies in Ireland, government agencies and further and higher education institutions to access, adopt and accelerate new technologies, for example, in floating offshore wind and digital, that solve real world challenges and collaborate to drive the sector’s future competitiveness;
• Exploring the concept of green energy industrial parks with the potential to deliver large scale, impactful property, utility and infrastructure solutions, capable of attracting larger scale investments, co-located with renewable energy generation, providing new industrial opportunities for appropriate geographical locations where complementary renewable energy can be sourced/developed, eg, offshore and onshore wind; 
• Driving scale in the offshore wind supply chain through in-depth, one-to-one assistance to support transformational change in new and existing companies targeting scaled growth in the offshore wind supply chain both at home and in global markets; 
• Building on international strategic partnerships with other countries to establish meaningful cooperation in supply chain development and knowledge transfer within the highly internationalised offshore wind industry.