Tag Archives: wave energy

Renewables developer says legislators need to facilitate the change from fossil fuels CLARE’S renewable energy potential has been described as “a huge, massive, endless, sustainable resource,” with the capacity to provide thousands of jobs and funding for vital public services. Barefield native Padraig Howard, a renewable energy developer believes that Clare’s on- and off-shore resources have the same transformative potential that the oil and gas sectors had a century ago. The difference is their green credentials and limitless supply. He told The Champion that while the development of the sector is “glacially slow”, the urgency of the climate crisis and the job creating potential of renewables is likely to push the sector to the top of the political agenda. Mr Howard, whose company developed the Mount Callan Windfarm, among others, highlighted Intel’s interest in Oranmore as a prime example of the potential of green energy to attract industry. “Oranmore is on a shortlist alongside a site in German and one …

THE Chief Executive of Clare County Council has described the European Commission’s decision to award €23 million to a wave energy project off the Clare coast as a positive endorsement of the polices adopted locally to support renewable energy production projects. ESB WestWave is proposing to develop the first wave energy project in Ireland by 2018 off Killard in Doonbeg, generating an initial 5MW of electricity which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of households in nearby Kilrush and Kilkee. Council Chief Executive Tom Coughlan says the harnessing of clean renewable electricity from the plentiful wave energy resource available off Clare’s coast is one of key objectives of the County Clare Renewable Energy Strategy 2014-2020. Earlier this year, Clare County Council became one of the first local authorities in the country to incorporate such a Strategy into their County Development Plan. Among the targets set out in the strategy, Mr. Coughlan noted, is for the local authority to facilitate the …