The Irish government has granted Statkraft a foreshore licence for site investigation in waters off Ireland where the company plans to build a 530 MW offshore wind farm.
The developer submitted an application for the licence in December 2019, requesting approval to undertake site investigations at the project site located off the coasts of County Dublin and County Louth to determine detailed seabed and metocean conditions.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which received the application in January 2020, granted the licence to Statkraft’s wholly owned subsidiary North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Limited earlier this month.
The North Irish Sea Array project site covers around 226.9 square kilometres in the Irish Sea between seven and 17 kilometres off the coast of the Dublin, Meath, and Louth counties.
Statkraft, which has also applied for a foreshore licence to investigate the export cable route for the wind farm, bought the project as part of the acquisition of Element Power in late 2018, after Element Power acquired the project from Gaelectric , which was developing NISA together with Oriel, the company behind the 330 MW Oriel offshore wind project.
The site investigation works are required to inform the engineering and detailed design of the offshore wind farm to a sufficient level to allow detailed engagement with the supply chain so as to enable participation in a RESS auction.
The NISA offshore wind farm is one of the seven projects the Irish government designated as relevant to be fast-tracked through the then new marine planning regime.