Arklow Bank Wind Park as seen from Arklow

Arklow Bank Wind Park is a 25 megawatt offshore

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

generating electrical power for the

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has a ...

region in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It is the first offshore wind farm in Ireland, and the world's first erection of

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

s rated over 3 MW. It is located on the Arklow Bank, a shallow water sandbank in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

, around off the coast of

Arklow Arklow (; ; , ) is a town in County Wicklow on the southeast coast of Ireland. The town is overlooked by Ballymoyle Hill. It was founded by the Vikings in the ninth century. Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 re ...

with an area of .Ireland's Offshore Wind Power
,

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

The project is being co-developed by

Airtricity SSE Airtricity (previously Eirtricity) is an energy company founded in Ireland in 1997, and now a subsidiary SSE plc. SSE Airtricity supplies and distributes electricity and gas to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. History The com ...

and GE Wind Energy. In 2002, Airtricity obtained an offshore lease for a 520 MW offshore wind farm. The first phase of the project, commissioned in June 2004, consists of seven GE 3.6-megawatt generators. They were installed by the Danish offshore wind farms services provider A2SEA. Power cables were laid by Five Oceans Services (now SIEM Offshore Contractors), and construction of the turbines themselves was based out of Rosslare port. All of the turbines have a height of and height to top of blade of . The blade length is and each turbine has three blades. Each turbine weights 290 tonnes. They use steel monopole foundations driven in by a hydraulic hammer and each turbine has a landing platform for boat access. They are spaced apart. Generated electricity is fed to ESB Networks distribution grid through the Arklow National Grid Substation. Phase 2 of the Arklow Project was to be developed in partnership with

Acciona Energy Acciona, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational conglomerate dedicated to the development and management of infrastructure (construction, water, industrial and services) and renewable energy. The company, via subsidiary Acciona Energy, produces 21 te ...

of Spain. The development was to consist of a further 193 turbines. However, Phase 2 and the planned connection to Eirgrid transmission system was cancelled in 2007. In January 2018, SSE Ireland confirmed to the Oireachtas ''Joint Committee On Communications, Climate Action And Environment'' their continuing commitment and planned investment of over €1B in the project to help meet Ireland's 2020 renewable energy targets. A geotechnical survey was completed in September 2018. The project is proposed to a larger scheme which includes a further installation at Codling Bank, near

Bray Head Bray Head ( ga, Ceann Bhré) is a hill and headland located in northern County Wicklow, Ireland, between the towns of Bray and Greystones. It forms part of the Wicklow Mountains and is a popular spot with hillwalkers. At the top of the head i ...

and would see a total of 1620MW generation capacity, almost twice the offshore turbine capacity in operation worldwide as of 2006. The development has elicited local concern that some 420 turbines would also be visible from coastal

and

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...

, while applications have been submitted for further wind banks in excess of 1000MW capacity. Local consultation about offshore power generation is minimal, but the local tourism association lists the wind farm as part of the Arklow South Beach. Technological advances since permission was originally sought mean that approximately half the original number of turbines are planned to be deployed in Arklow Bank phase 2, while still achieving the additional power generation capacity of 500MW. The Arklow Bank Wind Farm capacity remained 25MW as of October 2018. In October 2022, lightning struck and burned a turbine. In June 2022, SSE Renewables submitted an application for a Maritime Area Consent (MAC) for Phase 2 project to the Irish government. The MAC application followed an An Bord Pleanála's landmark decision to grant planning permission for the onshore grid infrastructure required to connect the 800-MW Phase 2 of Arklow Bank to Ireland's electricity transmission grid.

See also