A NEW campaign to locate all offshore windfarms at least 22km from the Irish coastline has been launched by residents of Helvick in West Waterford.
A group called the 'Waterford Offshore Wind Awareness Group' say they have set up the campaign on foot of a plans for a number of prospective windfarms off the Waterford coastline.
A minimum 22km distance from shore is being applied in other EU countries and the 'Blue Horizon' campaign says that here in Ireland we have no such restrictions at the moment and so applications are "developer led".
Eveleen Drohan, who is a Helvick resident involved in the new campaign, spoke to Damien Tiernan on 'Deise Today' this morning.
She said that a number of prospective sites in Waterford stretching from Tramore to Helvick and beyond have been identified for offshore windfarms.
And the closest survey area, she said, for what energy company Energia Renewables are proposing, is just 5km from Helvick Head.
"This application has the potential to be the largest offshore windfarm in the world and no others are located this close to shoreline. It doesn't happen anymore in the EU," she said.
Eveleen said the Waterford Offshore Wind Awareness Group' was formed in August/September 2019 and are a group of individuals, from a mix of backgrounds, interested in outdoors and the fishing industry.
"We are pro renewable energy and we support offshore renewable developments," she said, adding that what was key was where they were located.
Regarding offshore windfarms, she said that having researched this area, the group had found that Ireland had a "developer led" process which was extremely at odds with international best practise.
"I think there's a misconception that because something is labelled 'green' it's the right thing to do and the public generally don't question it because 'green' is good," she said.
Eveleen said it's time the Irish Government undertook studies in terms of what effect, if any, surveying and other works for these proposals have on fish displacement etc.
You can listen back to Eveleen Drohan on this morning's programme by clicking below here...
