Irish Wind Energy Association

Off-shore wind has shown proven economic viability around the world. Off-shore wind farms are present off the shores of numerous countries including Denmark, the United Kingdom and most recently off the east coast of Ireland. The Arklow bank project (Phase 1) is a 25 MW partnership venture between Airtricity and GE Energy.

Off-shore wind has some considerably different characteristics when compared with conventional on-shore development. On the positive side, wind speeds at sea tend to be considerably higher than those over land providing greater returns. In terms of transportation, off-shore wind farming has a considerable advantage over on-shore development in terms physically getting turbines to the site. Off-shore turbines are also predominantly towards the largest end of the scale in terms of tower height and rotor diameter. Additionally, in the main, such projects are less likely to suffer with delays that would be normally experienced on land e.g. planning objections for both the farm and the grid connection, site access etc...

While off-shore development has many advantages over its on-shore equivalent, higher capital costs and high site dependency represent some of the challenges to development, although it should be remembered that higher generation yields do go a considerable way towards offsetting these initial capital costs.

For more information, please view our off-shore Frequently Asked Questions section.