Prime minister Keir Starmer has announced that the UK and Ireland will closely collaborate on developing subsea energy infrastructure to help boost offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.
Ahead of the first annual UK-Ireland Summit in Liverpool, Starmer has announced that the two nations will create a new data-sharing arrangement to help facilitate more offshore wind development in the Celtic Sea. As part of this, the sea basin will be mapped to enable the development of better subsea interconnectors between the UK and Ireland. The leaders of the UK and Ireland say that this will help to cut red tape and this help to increase the amount of offshore wind development in the Celtic Sea.
Starmer said: “Energy security and national security are two sides of the same coin, that is why we must work with our allies and partners across the world to protect the hardworking British people from external factors driving up household bills.
“As our closest neighbour, our partnership with Ireland is a testament to the importance of working with international partners to deliver for people at home. Now more than ever we must work with like-minded partners in the pursuit of global peace, prosperity and security.”
Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin added: “There is good cooperation between us on energy, and I am particularly delighted that, following this summit, in recognition of critical importance of the Celtic and Irish Seas, we will take that cooperation to a higher level and look to work together to harness the potential for cooperation on offshore energy and interconnection, including a new joint initiative to map the sea basin to improve interoperability.”
Furthering interconnection prospects
This is not the first time Ireland and the UK have cooperated on offshore wind and interconnection.
In May of last year, government ministers from Ireland, Belgium and the UK pledged to work more closely to solve challenges of offshore wind interconnection. The three nations signed a joint statement to allow for closer cooperation between them in order to speed up offshore wind development, building on targets set at the North Sea Summit held in Ostend in 2023.
The countries have established a working group to create a report on the challenges, opportunities and solutions for developing offshore wind. Ireland’s grid system operator EirGrid has stated that they expect this work to be completed early this year.
