As part of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, the country has ambitions of deploying at least 7 GW offshore wind capacity by 2030, with 2 GW earmarked for green hydrogen production. To effectively deliver this ambition level, Ireland has chosen to gradually transition to a plan-led regime in which the state will be more involved in the overall renewable energy (ORE) planning framework.
As part of this process, Ea put forward a series of policy recommendations to enable hybrid interconnections, which combine ORE generation with interconnector transmission lines. Hybrids have the potential to reduce the need for offshore grid investments, reducing total system costs and environmental impact. At the same time, it facilitates Ireland’s integration with neighbouring countries and thereby supports security of supply and addressing oversupply concerns. Ea’s policy recommendations were built upon a detailed analysis of best practices in relevant offshore jurisdictions as well as appropriate cost recovery mechanisms and de-risking measures.
In this project, Ea Energy Analyses partnered with a group of Irish and German consultancy firms led by AARC Ltd (Ireland). The project was carried out for the Irish Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) with financial support from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM).
The project ran from November 2022 to April 2024.
Find information about one of our projects in Türkiye here.