Environment Minister sets staggered timetable as planning authority weighs Wicklow offshore wind projects

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

Environment Minister Darragh O’Brien has confirmed that Wicklow’s offshore wind rollout will advance through a staggered series of planning decisions before the end of the decade.

His comments, issued in response to a parliamentary question, underline both the scale of the Phase 1 pipeline and the slow, sequential nature of the State’s new consenting regime under the Maritime Area Planning Act.

The minister said An Coimisiún Pleanála is “expected to make two determinations before the end of this year and three others to follow in the first half of 2027.”

Those five determinations cover the entire Phase 1 cohort on the east coast, including the 800 MW Arklow Bank II project, Codling Wind Park and Dublin Array, which includes the Bray Bank area just north of the Wicklow boundary.

His phrasing makes clear that all five projects remain under assessment and that none will receive approval before late 2026 at the earliest.

The Maritime Area Planning Act, which replaced the old foreshore system, requires a full environmental and technical examination before any determination can be made.

This has created a more structured but lengthier process, with Phase 1 projects moving through a detailed assessment sequence that cannot be accelerated without legislative change.

In Wicklow, this means Arklow Bank II cannot begin construction until planning permission is granted, and the minister’s timeline confirms that the earliest possible green light would arrive at the end of this year.

The minister said he anticipates that Phase 1 projects “will be in construction over the next few years and operational in the early 2030s”.

The update comes as the original Arklow Bank turbines, the seven‑turbine, 25.2 MW array built in 2003 and 2004, are being decommissioned. An application for the removal works is currently before An Coimisiún Pleanála for review.

The decommissioning is necessary to clear space for the new 800 MW Arklow Bank Wind Farm II, being developed by SSE Renewables.

Once complete, it will mark the end of Ireland’s only operational offshore wind presence and leave Wicklow’s coastline without turbines until Phase 1 projects progress through the planning system.

Arklow Bank II, Codling Wind Park and Dublin Array represent the county’s most substantial renewable energy developments in decades, yet all are tied to a national consenting process that is moving slowly and sequentially.

The minister’s timeline confirms that construction on these projects will not begin until well into the second half of the decade.