IRELAND has “literally the best offshore wind opportunities on the planet”, according to a senior manager at a Cork company that is leading the way in renewable energy.
Cobh native Cormac Gebruers went to sea when he was a teenager, joining the merchant navy at 17, and he later served as head of college at the National Maritime College of Ireland.
Last year, he was appointed group external affairs manager at DP Energy, a Cork company that specialises in renewable energy and sustainable development.
Founded in Buttevant and headquartered on Horgan’s Quay, DP Energy has 30 years’ experience in the development, construction, and operation of renewable-energy assets and the company has developed over 1GW (gigawatt) of energy projects, the majority already built and operational. The company is led by mother-and-son co-founders, Maureen and Simon De Pietro.
DP Energy employs 60 people, 40 of them in Cork, and has an immediate pipeline of 7GW of both on- and off-shore wind and solar energy projects across Ireland, the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Mr Gebruers told that Ireland’s offshore energy potential is a “gamechanger” and will benefit the country as a whole, and our coastal communities in particular.
“Ireland has been well ahead of the curve with onshore wind, initially, and there have been periods, recently, where about 40% of our total electricity generated has been from green energy, which is an amazing number.”
We have been late coming to offshore wind, for two reasons, the first perhaps being “sea blindness”, where, despite it being an island, Ireland has not had a great history as a maritime nation.
“I think, for that reason, we were slow to recognise the resource that is our maritime, generally, and, secondly, our planning systems are not good, particularly around building large infrastructure. Now, we’re not alone in that, but I think we are in a more difficult place than some countries, in terms of getting bigger national infrastructure projects built, and that’s a serious national conversation I, personally, think needs to happen.”
Despite that, Ireland’s renewable energy opportunities are second to none, he says.
“We have, literally, the best offshore wind opportunities on the planet, ourselves and Scotland, because of where we are, on the eastern shores of the north Atlantic Ocean.
“The recoverable energy that we can extract from offshore wind in Ireland is just huge. Government has a target to be generating about 37GW from Irish offshore wind by mid-century.
“That is a gamechanger, because Europe is desperate for clean energy and we have way more than we will need. At the moment, Irish electricity use peaks around 6GW, and once we electrify everything, it’ll be around 12GW, and the Irish government has recently released an industrial strategy around offshore wind, which is basically how Ireland will benefit economically from this huge resource we have.”
Mr Gebruers said offshore energy generation gives Ireland an opportunity to secure its economic future “for good and for ever”, and as someone who grew up in Cobh, he believes that offshore energy can be the saving of Ireland’s coastal communities.
“It’s going to revitalise offshore communities in a way that nothing else could. It’s a huge opportunity, because it’s very serious money, and that money will go into our coastal communities. It can be a win-win. It’s going to involve change, but change is coming one way or the other; climate change is on top of us. Ask the poor unfortunate people in Midleton.
“Change is coming because of climate change, but this is a huge opportunity for Ireland,” he said.
