Shannon Foynes Port is to invest €28 million in new infrastructure as part of its plan to turn the Shannon Estuary into an international hub for for floating offshore wind generation.
The project is being funded by Shannon Foynes Port Company and the EU's Connecting Europe facility, an EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment.
The initiative will see the expansion of the jetty infrastructure, joining and infilling two existing jetties to give an additional 117metres of set down/storage area. Planing permission has already been secured for the development, and work has begun on the jetty.
The project will also include the development of one of the country’s largest logistics buildings, which the company said would be a significant boost to national bulk and unitised freight supply chain infrastructure. Work on the 127,000sq ft facility will start later this year.
"This investment reflects the unprecedented opportunity for the Shannon Estuary and Shannon Foynes Port Company. It represents the next stage of implementation of our investment programme and, importantly, lays the foundation for further required scalable capacity investments to accommodate growth in both the offshore renewable sector and the transport sector," said Shannon Foynes Port Company chief executive Pat Keating. "For example, our objective to be the supply chain facilitator for an Atlantic floating offshore wind energy hub and related hydrogen production will be transformational in terms of our climate action targets, our national economy and energy security."
Study
The port company’s offshore floating wind study estimates that up to €12 billion in associated supply chain investment could be located on the Shannon Estuary by 2050. That brings the potential for up to 30,000 jobs.
“We have some of the most consistent winds in the world off the west coast, the technology now in place to harness those winds through floating offshore wind and, in the Shannon Estuary, the deep and sheltered waters necessary to build the floating devices before they are brought out into open ocean waters,” Mr Keating said.
"The world's leading players in this space want to invest here and leading nations, such as Germany, want the green hydrogen we can generate from this almost limitless renewable energy. But for all this to happen, we need to invest heavily in our infrastructure and the plans we are announcing today are significant step in that regard."
