| |
| Project: |
Cost
Benefit Analysis of Government Support Options
for Offshore Wind Energy |
| Client: |
Sustainable
Energy Ireland |
| Sectors: |
Government
& State Agencies, Energy |
| Location: |
Ireland |
|
Byrne Ó Cléirigh were appointed by Sustainable
Energy Ireland to conduct a comparative
assessment of the costs and benefits to the State
of a number of support options for Offshore Wind
Energy in Irish waters.
Offshore Wind Energy is conceptually similar to
the land based equivalent but it is less well
developed. At the end of 2001, there were eight
projects installed worldwide with a combined
installed capacity of approximately 80 MW.
Ireland has a huge OWE resource, including a
significant resource in relatively shallow waters
close to the electrical network and to load
centres. However, there are a number of important
technical barriers to the full exploitation of
this resource. At the time, there were no developments
in Irish waters but several consortia had proposed to
develop projects with a combined installed
capacity in excess of 2,000 MW. Most were located
on the shallow water banks off the East Coast. Since then,
25 MW of capacity has been installed on the Arklow Bank.
The objective of the study was to assist the
Irish Government and its advisors in deciding on
the viability of committing State resources to
supporting the development of Offshore Wind
Energy through a research and development
programme, a demonstration programme and / or a
full scale deployment programme.
BÓC were requested by Sustainable Energy Ireland
to focus primarily on the demonstration programme
support option and to assess the costs and
benefits associated with demonstration projects
of three indicative scales, viz.: ~5 MW, ~20 MW
and ~50 MW.
Our final report is available to download from the SEI website. This is not the only project in the
Offshore Wind Sector that Byrne Ó Cléirigh have
completed. Click here to read about our
assessment of the environmental impacts of
Offshore Wind Energy. |
|
|
