An Bord Pleanála (ABP) has asked developers of Irish Sea wind farms to revise their planning applications to take into account the cumulative effect of other similar wind farms proposed for the Irish Sea.
The request sent to the developers of the Oriel, Arklow and North Irish Sea wind farms on April 17th is likely to have a significant impact, particularly if, as expected, it is extended to the Codling and Dublin Array wind farms. Between them, both wind farms form a 33km line of wind turbines from Dún Laoghaire to Wicklow.
The Codling and Dublin Array turbines would be taller than Bray Head, which is the tallest item on the east coast. The Dublin Array site is 9km off the coast at Greystones and the Codling Bank site is between 13km and 22km south of that, off the coast of Wicklow.
The Arklow Bank Wind Park 2 project is planned to be located about 13 kilometres off the coast of Arklow, alongside the existing Arklow Bank Wind Park 1 farm. The Wind Park 2 development would provide up to 800MW of electricity, which is central to plans for two large-scale Echelon data centres in Arklow, announced at the weekend.
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In letter to Sure Partners Limited, a subsidiary of developers SSE Renewables, seen by The Irish Times, ABP said: “The applicant is requested to revise the submitted cumulative assessment taking into account other proposed wind farms in the Irish Sea.” The letter added: “This assessment should include each of the Irish Sea Phase 1 ORE Projects, namely (Oriel WF (ABP-319799-24), NISA WF (ABP-319866-24), Codling Wind Park (ABP 320768-24), and Dublin Array WF (ABP-321992-25).”
Crucially, the letter also said “the board considers that insufficient justification has been provided with respect to how the proposed [Arklow Bank 2] development could be considered visually acceptable, noting the conclusions of the Seascape, Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (SLVIA) [report].”
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The cumulative visual impact of the nearshore wind farms proposed for the Irish Sea was raised by members of the public and statutory bodies such as Fáilte Ireland, in submissions to ABP regarding a number of the proposed wind farms.
In a submission on a planning application for the Dublin Array, former chairman of Wicklow County Council Derek Mitchell said the application did not show a map of the proposed, neighbouring, Codling Bank wind farm.
Mr Mitchell said “the cumulative impact has received little consideration”. He told ABP the wind turbines would “have 115 degree arc of view from Greystones, almost the entire sea horizon”. Mr Mitchell proposed a 10km gap between the Codling and Dublin Array farms which he said would reduce the wind farms in the arc of vision to 75 degrees.
The State’s long-term ambition for offshore renewable energy in Ireland, The Future Framework, aims to deliver 20GW of offshore wind energy by 2040 and at least 37GW in total by 2050.
