Agence France Presse | January 11, 2002 Ireland's government has given the go-ahead to build the world's biggest offshore wind farm on a sandbank in the Irish Sea, south of Dublin, Marine minister Frank Fahey said on Friday. The 630-million-euro (562-million-dollar) development will produce 10 percent of the country's electricity needs when completed. Fahey said the development by the Irish Eirtricity consortium would have "three times the combined capacity of all offshore wind farms currently in production in the world." The state will receive up to 1.9 million euros a year from Eirtricity in rentals and royalties for use of the sandbank. "It is a very big power station. It will allow the development of a 200-turbine, 520-megawatts (MW) wind farm providing electricity from the cleanest energy in the world," Fahey said. An environmental impact statement has been carried out on the development and Fahey issued a foreshore licence for the project -- which is effectively planning permission at sea. Fahey said there had been wide public consultation on the plan and no objections. Eight submissions had been received, all of them in favour. Construction of the development, about seven kilometres (four miles) off Arklow, County Wicklow, is to begin in the spring, with the first phase, involving 60 megawatts, expected to be generating power by the autumn. The sandbank, known as the Arklow Bank, runs north-south along the coast and measures about 27 kilometers by 2.5 kilometers with water depths of between five and 25 metres. Phase one will replace 330 million euros of imported fossil fuels and the social benefit of avoided pollution is estimated at 25 million euros. Fahey said the turbines, which will rise 80 metres from the sea, would be visible from the coast in clear weather. "Given that it is pretty well offshore, it shouldn't be a major impact on the scenic amenity or on tourism," he said. "Otherwise it is all positive. Wind energy is clean. We will be able to reduce our levels of carbon dioxide by some 13.5 million tonnes. In the context of our Kyoto targets, it will have a major impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions." The Kyoto Protocol was drawn up in December 1997 as a blueprint for reducing "greenhouse gases" -- the carbon-based pollutants from burning fossil fuels that are blamed for global warming.Agence France Presse:
