By Business & Finance 
SSE Renewables submits an investigative foreshore licence to begin survey work for a possible new offshore wind farm off the coast of Tarbert, Co. Kerry.
SSE Renewables has submitted an application to Ireland’s Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage for an investigative foreshore licence with plans to begin surveying seabeds off the coast of Tarbet, Co. Kerry, in search of an ideal location for a new wind farm project.
Environmental, geotechnical, and geophysical surveying must confirm that the area meets adequate conditional standards, specifically in met-ocean environments. The minimum distance for the foreshore investigative array area is 13 km offshore.
This will be SSE Renewables’ first licence application for a west coast offshore wind project, with developments to build an offshore pipeline up to 4GW underway. This will also include offshore projects such as Wicklow’s Arklow Band Wind Park 2, the Celtic Sea Array and Setanta Wind Park projects.
Pursuing development opportunities off the west coast is part of our long-term offshore wind strategy in Ireland. The selection of this site off the coast of Tarbert allows us to leverage SSE’s existing energy infrastructure in north Kerry and maximise the use of complementary technologies”, Martin Sweeney, Lead Project Manager for Blue Seas Development (Ireland), SSE Renewables.
Commenting on the new project, Martin Sweeney, Lead Project Manager for Blue Seas Development (Ireland), SSE Renewables, said: “Our plans to develop an offshore wind project off the coast of Tarbert, Co. Kerry is a natural step forward in our renewables ambitions for Ireland. This will be our first project in the Atlantic Ocean and our experience in developing our Ossian project in the North Sea off Scotland, one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind developments, will be invaluable as we look to leverage the energy potential off Ireland’s west coast.
“Pursuing development opportunities off the west coast is part of our long-term offshore wind strategy in Ireland. The selection of this site off the coast of Tarbert allows us to leverage SSE’s existing energy infrastructure in north Kerry and maximise the use of complementary technologies.”
More recently SSE Thermal had announced that its 10-year capacity contracts for its two newly proposed Irish energy stations would be sustainably fuelled. Specifically, the low-carbon fuelled units in Co. Kerry and Co. Meath plan to begin plans within 2026/27.
There are plans for the power plants to transition to hydrogen fuel in the future and will continue to help supply and provide flexible backup to Ireland’s growing renewables sector. The transition to hydrogen energy goes allow with a plan to further transition Ireland’s economy and energy systems.
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