Sir, – I take issue with Bill Emmott’s article “Ireland’s failure to investigate floating wind farms is shameful” (Opinion & Analysis, November 26th) and Michael O’Meara’s subsequent letter (“Floating wind farms – the wave of the future”, November 27th) advocating floating wind farms off Ireland.
It is simply not the case that floating wind farms are any kind of solution in the foreseeable future. These are still very much in the experimental phase of their development and are not a major component of and significant wind farm in the world. They are several orders of magnitude more expensive than fixed-bottom wind turbines. Their proposal is yet another effort by local communities to hinder and delay the development of offshore windfarms. Fixed-bottom wind turbines are absolutely not outdated, as suggested by Dr O’Meara, and instead continue to be installed at pace world wide.
Just one example are the several wind farms off the coast of Normandy which are all about to come onstream in the near future.
Dr O’Meara acknowledges that floating wind farms will not become commercially viable until at least 2035, more than a decade away. In the meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency has pointed out that Ireland is failing badly to meet the EU emissions reduction targets set for 2030 and will likely face a fine of up to €8 billion.
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There are other costs arising from Ireland’s reluctance to adopt land and fixed offshore wind turbines. The cost of electricity in Ireland is double that of Denmark, which has installed far more wind energy facilities than Ireland. I doubt very much if any of this consists of floating wind turbines.
There is no evidence that fixed offshore wind turbines some 5km offshore cause major biodiversity disruption. The approximately 10 sites proposed for fixed-bottom wind farms would occupy less than one thousandth of one per cent of the vast area of seas and oceans off our shores. On the other hand, if climate change gets out of control then the disruption to biodiversity nation wide will be extensive.
The simple fact is that local communities adjacent to these proposed sites do not want these turbines in their distant views. This is a minor inconvenience that they are not willing to tolerate. It is an entirely selfish stance. – Yours, etc,
TIMOTHY J RYAN,
Dublin 15.