This article is from page 4 of the 2011-07-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
HUNDREDS of jobs could to be created in Clare in the coming years as a result of a number of new Irish wave energy projects which are set to come online off the Clare coast in the coming decade.
This follows the granting of a foreshore license for the WestWave Project at Killard Point off the Doonbeg coast last week, which will see a number of companies use the water off the Clare coast as Ireland’s first wave energy power station.
When completed the prototype wave power station will create an estimated 5MW of electricity. According to Andrew Parish, CEO of wave energy company WaveBob, each megawatt of energy created will equate to roughly 15 jobs onshore, with many more during the construction phase.
This mean that the WestWave Project could create as many as 75 Clare jobs before 2015. With commercial production likely to be roughly ten times the size of the WestWave prototype, the number of Clare jobs to be created could quickly into the several hundred. The Clare, Mayo and Kerry coastlines are considered to be three of the top locations for wave energy in the world.
“Clare has a huge potential for wave energy, indeed the west coast of Ireland has one of the largest wave energy capacities in Ireland. Clare is one of the three counties best served with the potential to exploit wave energy. That is not just about the waves, it is also about the coastline, port facilities and the grid connection,” Mr Parish told The Clare People yesterday.
“The official estimates from the European Commission is that there would be 10 to 15 jobs created for every megawatt of capacity added. So you can see that there is a good number of jobs here.
“We would estimate that about half of these jobs would come in the supply side of the operation – the people who are providing servicing, maintenance, transport and boats. That is on an ongoing basis but during construction there are additional contractors who would be brought in work on that,” he added.
The WestWave Project aims to develop the first wave energy project in Ireland by 2015 by generating an initial 5MW of clean renewable electricity. WestWave is a collaborative project being led by ESB in conjunction with a number of wave energy technology partners including Ocean Energy and WaveBob.