Corio, an energy generation firm backed by Australian financier Macquarie, is poised to lodge a maritime planning application for a €1.5 billion development of offshore wind turbines on Sceirde Rocks, around 5km southwest of Carna, near the historic pilgrimage destination of St MacDara’s Island.
The project, which will include an offshore sub station and 30 turbines built across an area of approximately 10 square kilometres of shallow coastal waters, is also 5km from the University of Galway’s Mace Head Atmospheric Research station. The 66-year-old facility’s location makes it unique in Europe, offering westerly exposure to North Atlantic air flows.
“The University has concerns at the likely impact of the Sceirde Wind Farm development on this invaluable research, and the research of our international partners,” said a UG spokesman. “These issues were notified to Government during public consultation on foreshore licensing for the proposed project. The University has also raised these matters directly with the developers and continues to engage directly with them.”
In early 2023, EirGrid, and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications confirmed that Sceirde Rocks was one of four wind farms projects which successfully bid in Ireland’s first Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (ORESS ) auction. This guarantees that the state will purchase 20 years of electricity from the project, with an average price of €86.05 per Mwh, substantially less that the current €107 per Mwh price, saving Irish consumers millions in energy bills.
In July last year, Minister Daragh O’Brien pledged that a new Maritime Area Regulatory Authority would be established for offshore planning, and last month Minister Eamon Ryan oversaw the formal transfer of powers to his Department of the Environment for Maritime Area Consents (MACs ), the offshore equivalent of a planning permission.
Part of the university’s Ryan Institute, the Mace Head station has been a site for aerosol measurements since 1958. Its uninterrupted exposure to air movements means it is an integral part of a number of international networks, including the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE ), the Atmospheric-Ocean Chemistry Experiment (AEROCE ), the World Meteorological Organisation’s Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW ), the EU’s Tropospheric Ozone Research project (TOR ), Budget of Ozone over the Atlantic (BOA ), and the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA ) sampling network.
On its project website, Corio says that once planning permission is secured, it intends to begin construction in 2026, with the 450 mega watt wind farm off Connemara producing enough energy to power 350,000 homes by 2030. Last December it completed three months of detailed seabed surveys necessary for making a MAC planning application.
