Green Party European election candidate Pauline O’Reilly has accused Fianna Fáil of cynically raising voters’ hopes by making “fantasy claims” around the timescale for floating offshore wind farms off Ireland’s western seaboard.
Senator Pauline O’Reilly, Green Party candidate for Europe in Midlands-North West, said the powerful winds off our Atlantic coast have the potential to produce several times’ Ireland’s energy needs and will act as a magnet for jobs and investment in the region.
But she hit out at Fianna Fáil Senator Lisa Chambers for falsely claiming that floating wind farms could be introduced off the west coast within the next five years given that floating turbines are still in their infancy and not yet ready for the stormier waters off our Atlantic seaboard.
“I’ve sat in radio studios with Lisa over the last few weeks and tried to break it down for her several times but she still doesn’t seem to get it,” Senator O’Reilly said.
“She continues to falsely claim that floating wind turbines could be quickly deployed in our Atlantic even though we’ve still got several obstacles to navigate.”
“No-one would love to see floating turbines deployed in the Atlantic more than me, but it’s cynical to get people’s hopes up when it’s still some time off,” she added.
The Galway-based Senator said she was posting a copy of ‘Wind Power for Dummies’ to Lisa Chambers in the hope that she would be able to understand some of the basics around wind energy and not continue misleading the public.
Senator O’Reilly added that the focus for now must be on harnessing Ireland’s offshore potential through the use of fixed-bottom turbines, at locations along our west, east and south coasts, which are much easier and cheaper to deploy.
Work will continue in the meantime to ensure that when the technology for floating turbines in deeper water is ready, Ireland will be ready to deploy them in the Atlantic. This includes the development of a demonstration site at Belmullet in County Mayo and specialised mapping of the Atlantic coast.
“Major investment is also needed in the West’s electricity grid so that it will be able to handle the huge amounts of power it will have to transmit in the coming years - yet Senator Chambers has sought to delay this investment in the past,” she said.*
“The Green Party has been leading the charge on offshore wind for 40 years. You can trust that we’ve got the talent and experience to do the job properly and not to raise false hopes about things we don’t understand like Fianna Fáil,” she concluded.
