Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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260. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding any further initiatives proposed by his Department to increase the support for offshore wind infrastructure in coastal communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17581/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Climate Action Plan 2024 commits to achieving at least 5 gigawatts (GW) of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030. The Government's Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce is driving delivery of this objective.

My Department’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme is the support mechanism to incentivise the development of both offshore and onshore wind and also of grid scale solar. The RESS provides state aid for a two-way contract for difference support mechanism that provides a guaranteed return for the project developer, thus incentivising early development renewable energy projects.

Our first offshore wind auction under the RESS, known as ORESS 1, took place in 2023 and awarded supports to four projects. Two further projects that were unsuccessful in the ORESS 1 auction are pursuing a route to market by contracting with large energy users to provide them with clean renewable energy through corporate power purchase agreements. These six projects combined account for a total of 4.3 GW. All six projects have now submitted applications for planning consent to An Bord Pleanála.

Our second offshore wind auction for the 900 MW Tonn Nua site located in the South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan (South Coast DMAP) will take place later this year, further contributing to our 5GW target.