Will Ireland again lose out to foreign investment – this time on marine energy?

A major conference supported by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has heard that marine energy harnessed from offshore wind, wave and tidal sources presents Ireland with a potential revenue and employment bonanza; however unless government renews its commitment to the sector the opportunity could be lost.

Delivering Ireland’s Ocean Energy Targets – developing Europe’s Ocean Energy Hub & Securing Ireland’s Energy Future heard from the SEAI’s Eoin Sweeney that marine renewables also addressed the twin challenges facing Europe in terms of climate change and security of energy supply.

“The fact is that by 2050 Europe has to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by reducing its use of conventional fossil fuel energy, while at the same time increasing its electricity-generating sources by 100%. There’s a fantastic opportunity here for which Ireland is well placed” he said.

Major revenue potential
Putting this in the context of a potential revenue generator, he said that when the UK last year attempted to put a monetary and employment value on their wind resource alone they concluded it could be just as valuable as their hydrocarbon reserves. The figures arrived at for installed capacity – under various scenarios – were staggering: ranging from 78GW (at13% utilization) to 400GW (at 76% utilization) – annually. Such capacities translate to revenues expected to range between Stg£28bn-Stg£164bn.

“I’m not quoting this as a scientific study but as an indication of the type of value that is beginning to be associated with these renewable offshore resources – which, unlike carbon, is environmentally clean and will not run out,” he declared.

Tracing the historical time line of the developing idea of an ocean energy programme for Ireland, Sweeney pointed to 2005 as significant when the then SEI and the Marine Institute produced an initial programme which showed that Ireland should be pro-active in promoting ocean energy – defined then as wave and tidal, but which he said has evolved into the wider term ‘marine energy’ and includes offshore wind.

“At the time it was a relatively modest programme. It proposed targets for 2020 of 200MW installed capacity. We believed that would eventually create something in the order of 2,000 jobs.”

According to Sweeney, the programme was eventually picked up by the previous government and made an element of the Programme for Government specifically funded with a mechanism to actually implement it – now the Ocean Energy Development Unit (OEDU) at SEAI. .

Revised strategy required
Fast forwarding to 2011, Sweeney said a revised strategy was now required to “reflect the dynamic context” for marine renewables and for the economy.

“‘The essence of the OEDU strategy is to pull together a whole series of elements: to support technology developers; to work with governments and policy-makers; attract investors; to support technologies and companies; build test and demonstration facilities; complete the environmental legislation required as the context to move forward; and to begin to stimulate work around the analysis of and the building of a supply chain.”

He added that its Steering Committee comprised of individuals representing the Departments of Energy and Environment as well as the SEAI and the Marine Institute to coordinate all government departments and agencies that are mandated to help deliver on ocean energy.

“There’s a whole range of government departments and agencies with mandates to deliver on ocean energy. And as a small group all we can do is act as a catalyst by bringing all of these together. We have been trying for a long time to get the Department of Trade and Enterprise to come into this process, but we haven’t been able to do that yet,” he said pointedly.

Cooperation crucial
As for the future, Sweeney is under no illusion that cooperation “across the board will be crucial” and says the process must begin with a radical look foreshore planning.

“Without this in place one of the critical pieces of the jig-saw is missing. Many of the Foreshore Acts date back seventy to eighty years, and need radical reforming. This is happening – albeit not at the pace people would like – but functions have been transferred to the Department of the Environment, and there is a Marine Spatial Plan in preparation. But I wouldn’t hold my breath over the next decade for this to be delivered,” he said.

He also welcomed the formation of the Marine Renewables Industry Association which he said has begun to identify the initial zones where wave energy would happen.

And highlighting the SEAI’s commitment to marine energy, he pointed to its role as both promoter and investor having already committed nearly €5m in grant-funding to around twenty concepts, companies and projects.

As for a growing perception abroad amongst potential utility investors – Swedish giant, Vattenfall in particular – that the pace of ocean energy development here was too slow, he said:

“Vattenfall has actually labeled Scotland ‘open for business’ and Ireland ‘closed for maintenance’. If this is the perception of large industries across Europe, and world-wide then this is something we need to address very urgently,” he stressed.

Ireland lacks resources
Compared to Ireland, Sweeney said that Scotland’s marine energy plan was “heavily resourced and supported at all levels of administration. And they have a leasing round already open and are awarding projects,” he stressed.

“The renewables section of the Department of Energy has only three people to implement all aspects of this massive challenge whereas their counterpart in Scotland has thirty people in their section. This is a stark illustration of the challenge we face.”

Concluding, Sweeney pointed to the many synergies between what’s happening in offshore wind and what will happen a little later in wave and tidal:

“All of these need to be captured – whether it’s in this Unit or in another it doesn’t really matter, but an integrated capability does need to be built.”

Harvey Appelbe of Tonn Energy, the Irish wave farm development company backed by Vattenfall and Bord Gáis told Inshore Ireland that whilst Vattenfall was increasingly viewing the British Isles as a whole, they see Scotland now as the “best place to do their pilot projects. There is nothing happening in Ireland, and all the best intentions in the world won’t change that until somebody actually does something”, he warned Appelbe pointed to the numerous government departments involved in marine energy here. “Ireland genuinely has the best wave resource in the world. The question is now will it be developed – by foreign companies, foreign engineers, foreign vessels – or will Ireland develop a competence to do it through Irish companies? It’s frustrating that this big, natural and renewable resource is just not being used,” he said.

 

Multi-disciplinary, all-island consultancy RPS is Ireland’s leading planning, engineering, environmental and communications consultancy. Over the past three decades, RPS has developed specialist infrastructure expertise to provide fully integrated consultancy services to the maritime, port and harbour industries. Services range from the delivery of port planning and feasibility studies through to infrastructure design and construction supervision. RPS also provides support services relating to operation and rehabilitation of port and harbour facilities including dredging, navigation and geotechnical advisory and inspection, testing and protection consultancy services. RPS provides whole life-cycle advisory services relating to marine infrastructure with a multi-disciplinary team of planners, engineers, scientists and architects. RPS is currently providing environmental, planning and port engineering services to the new £200m Vestas/Peel Ports wind turbine manufacturing facility at the Port of Sheerness in Scotland, in addition to working in many ports in Ireland including Dublin, Cork and Belfast. RPS has also completed a range of consultancy services to both private and public companies relating to offshore renewable energy. Over the past two decades the company has completed offshore resource studies for marine renewables and has assisted in technology development and deployment across a range of offshore wind, wave and tidal technologies. The company has designed subsea foundations for several wave and tidal developers, including Open Hydro’s developments in the Orkneys and Nova Scotia. Recently, conceptual design work and site selection studies have been completed for the Australian wave power developer Carnegie Wave Energy Limited. RPS has also completed feasibility studies relating to the delivery of offshore renewables technologies and infrastructure such as an analysis of infrastructure capacity in Ireland to support the ISLES project, currently being undertaken on behalf of the Irish, Northern Irish and Scottish governments.