Deadline looms as activists urge public to act on Arklow Bank wind farm decision

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

The South East Coastal Protection Alliance (SECPA) has reminded the public they have just days left to intervene in what it calls one of the most consequential coastal planning decisions in decades, as the deadline approaches for observations on SSE Renewables’s Arklow Bank Wind Park 2.

The final date to make public submissions to An Coimisiún Pleanála is July 29, and the alliance says the outcome will determine whether one of Ireland’s largest east coast sandbanks is permanently altered by offshore wind development.

The alliance points to the National Parks and Wildlife Service descriptions of the Bennet, Burford, Kish, Frazer, Bray, Codling, India, Arklow and other east coast sandbanks as rich, multi-species ecosystems.

These systems, SECPA says, have been building for thousands of years and “cannot be rebuilt once they are gone”.

The alliance argues that the public is only beginning to understand the ecological significance of these sandbanks as biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution force a reassessment of the sea as a natural defence.

An artist’s impression of SSE Renewables’s new facility in Arklow Harbour.

It says the Arklow Bank is one of the largest and most important of these formations, and that the proposed installation of up to 53 turbines risks altering the hydrodynamic processes that sustain it.

SSE’s own documents, SECPA notes, acknowledge potential “changes to the coast and sandbank systems, arising from the blockage of waves and tides”.

SECPA says the evidence of change is already visible. Sand has been accumulating at the base of the seven existing turbines since 2016 and is no longer returning to the south end of Brittas Bay. By April this year, the alliance says, the erosion there had become “in practical terms, undeniable”.

Wicklow County Council’s coastal planning rules require a precautionary approach because national erosion models are not yet considered adequate.

SECPA argues that SSE is relying on its own commissioned modelling to declare negligible risk on a coastline where official policy states the models are not good enough.

SSE rejects that interpretation. The company submitted a substantial package of new environmental data in response to a request for further information issued by An Coimisiún Pleanála last year.

The updated environmental impact assessment (EIA) report and updated natura impact statement incorporate extensive aerial, marine and geotechnical surveys, peer reviewed research and revised modelling.

SSE says the additional evidence shows the effects of the proposed development on coastal erosion and seabird populations are “not significant in EIA terms”.

It has also reduced the number of turbines from 56 to 53 and refined the layout of offshore infrastructure, changes it says will allow the project to be delivered “sensitively”.

James O’Hara, SSE’s director of offshore wind in Ireland, has said the updated submission marks “another important step forward” for a project he describes as central to Ireland’s offshore wind ambitions.

He said the company has responded to stakeholder feedback and believes the revised design enhances the development, while maintaining its ability to support Ireland’s transition to a cleaner, more secure and affordable energy system.

SSE says Arklow Bank 2 could deliver up to €800 million in national economic benefit, with around €400 million accruing locally in Wicklow and Wexford, and support around 2,300 direct and indirect jobs over its lifetime.