Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 1 March 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Energy - Ambition and Challenges: Discussion
Mr. Justin Moran:
It is alarming. We look at our phase one projects which are mostly on the east coast and there is one on the west coast and we would be very pleased if we were able to connect them in the first half of 2028. That will get us, at best, half way to the 5,000 MW target. It may not get us half way, and we have phase two to come in behind that. We will be trying to build them, plan them and get consent for them all more or less simultaneously and much of it is something that we have not done before in Ireland because we have not developed it. It is as stark as saying we could be in a difficult situation if we do not deliver in the next 12 months. It is not that we will not build wind farms or that we will not decarbonise this country, but it is that we will not do it quickly enough to deliver the kind of carbon budget savings that the committee has been working on.