Fresh hopes of a major economic boost from the State's ambitious climate plans are blowing in the wind on the Shannon Estuary as the ESB revealed a major new prospect of generating massive power off the Kerry coast. The ESB revealed how it is now seriously considering the possibility of delivering a massive offshore wind farm in two phases. The first phase, Moneypoint Offshore One, would be located 16kms off the Kerry/Clare coast, with a capacity of 400MW across an area of 70 square kms. Moneypoint Offshore Two, delivered over a later timeframe, would be located 20kms west of the first farm, scaling the vision up significantly - to generate up to 1.5GW from turbines spread over an area 200kms2 in size. Moneypoint is to cease operating as a coal-fired plant by 2025; with Tarbert Island to wind-up across the water by 2023.

Source: Irish Independent March 10, 2021 06:45 UTC