Mr. Stephen Wheeler:

I am pleased to have the opportunity to address the committee on the opportunity presented by offshore wind energy to meet Ireland's 2020 renewable targets. My company, SSE, is the largest renewable generator in Ireland, with over 700 MW of onshore wind under operation, including Ireland's largest wind farm, the 169 MW Galway wind farm. It is also a leading developer and operator of offshore wind energy. All told, we are involved in over 8,000 MW of offshore wind projects in the UK and Ireland, 900 MW of which is already generating, providing energy to customers and contributing to the achievement of the UK's targets. Closer to home in Irish waters we co-developed Ireland's first and only operational offshore wind farm in 2004, namely, the seven turbine, 25 MW Arklow Bank Phase 1. This was delivered at the time as a demonstrator project to prove the opportunity that offshore energy could represent for Ireland but almost 15 years later this opportunity has not been seized.

In Ireland, we have one of the strongest wind resources in the world yet we are the only country in northern Europe not currently developing offshore capacity. SSE believes that offshore wind can play a key role in bridging the gap to Ireland's 2020 targets and beyond. Onshore technologies have served us extremely well to date but we must be realistic that social acceptance to onshore energy developments is challenging and greater grid and planning constraints are now in place. What has been successful for us in the past does not guarantee future success. If we are to make up ground on 2020 and beyond - and we believe we can - then we need to fast-forward the build-out of large-scale renewable energy capacity. Offshore wind energy can deliver large volumes of renewable electricity in the short term and also set us on the right trajectory for more ambitious 2030 targets.

SSE is actively progressing plans to fully develop its Arklow Bank Wind Park project. This would represent an investment of over €1 billion and deliver a minimum of 520 MW of capacity. Most importantly, this project can be delivered in a timescale, from construction through to commercial operation that would qualify towards Ireland's 2020 targets, offsetting or potentially eliminating any fines. The Arklow Bank project and other Irish Sea projects are an efficient and realistic way to take the big strides we need to hit our targets. Looking beyond 2020, we are very excited that new floating foundation technology will allow Ireland to harness the resources off southern and western coasts and thereby stimulate very significant regional development. However, we can only do this as a sector if the right market conditions are in place. These conditions include, having a support scheme that supports offshore wind, an effective connection policy and efficient management of the consenting process. As the committee is aware, the Department has consulted recently on the design of a new renewable electricity support scheme. In our response, SSE called for the inclusion of offshore wind as a separate category in the first of the new support scheme auctions. The technology-neutral approach proposed will not give offshore wind projects investment clarity in the timeframe required or enable a local supply chain to develop. We fear that it will result in an over-reliance on onshore technology and, as I mentioned, we have doubts that a sufficient quantity of this technology can be delivered in the timeframe required. A technology-neutral approach fails to capture the diversification benefits of offshore wind. These benefits include, typical load factors of in excess of 40%, which is considerably higher than most other renewable electricity sources; delivery of consistent and predictable power to our national grid, providing significant system demand benefits; only connection is required to bring big power to where it is needed, which is simpler than developing lots of small decentralised projects; potential scale and strategic location of offshore wind can meet the future energy demands of clean-tech multinationals, particularly, large-scale load from data centres, the majority of which are located on the east coast; economic investment benefits in coastal regions and consequent employment opportunities and, upskilling for more ambitious 2030 targets and demand growth as heat and transport decarbonise through electrification.

From a cost perspective, following several years of innovation and de-risking offshore wind is now a scalable, proven and maturing technology which offers considerable benefits to consumers and society. Costs continue to fall and I believe Ireland should be part of this story. While offshore wind remains more expensive than onshore wind this gap has been narrowing and I believe that support is justified in light of the challenges of developing onshore wind, the climate change backdrop, Ireland's international reputation and impending fines, not to mention expected grid cost efficiencies and reduction in the wholesale cost of energy. As a supplier of energy through our SSE Airtricity brand we are acutely aware of the need to keep costs to a minimum but as a society we also need to decarbonise. While decarbonisation does come at a cost, not doing anything will cost us more and mean missed opportunities for Ireland.

We have a window of opportunity right now to transform the way to transform the way in which we generate power in Ireland and to do so in a way that reaffirms Ireland’s commitment to its EU targets and accelerates the deployment of new and diverse energy technology. Aside from the climate imperative, we can also avoid unnecessary costs to the Exchequer from failure to meet our targets domestically. In so doing, we can restore our reputation as a leading low carbon economy in Europe and the world, proudly supporting greener energy and attracting inward investment from across the globe to support jobs and our economy as a result.

I ask the committee to support our efforts in this regard.