18h ago

Who controls Ireland's offshore wind? Spoiler: Not Irish companies | Big oil, governments and one of Europe’s largest polluters are among the developers of planned projects off our coast

www.thejournal.ie Who controls Ireland's offshore wind? Spoiler: Not Irish companies

Big oil, governments and one of Europe’s largest polluters are among the developers of planned projects off our coast.

Big oil, governments and one of Europe’s largest polluters are among the developers of planned projects off our coast

18h ago

Who controls Ireland's offshore wind? Spoiler: Not Irish companies | Big oil, governments and one of Europe’s largest polluters are among the developers of planned projects off our coast

www.thejournal.ie /investigates-ireland-offshore-wind-6627898-Feb2025/

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10 comments

I would be more concerned about the technology that often comes from non-European, autocratic countries. Europe risks to replace its dependence from Russian fossil fuel with dependence from Chinese renewable energy tech.
- Two of the largest offshore wind turbine manufacturers are EU companies, namely Siemens Gamesa and Vestas.
  
  How is this bad?

Why is that bad?
- Because energy security is a real thing. Ireland would become dependent on the whims of foreign investors and/or purely profit motives. This may not be in their long term interest, both for stability and energy availability, and for green energy commitments.
  
  I would also like to add that many of the big polluters use their involvement to renewable projects as a marketing/advertisement strategy, in order to portray themselves as if they were part of the solution (energy transition), when in reality they are doing business as usual.
- I'm also not sure. There is something that sounds wrong here. To me, it doesn't matter where those companies are coming from. The Irish people won't profit at all if the owner of some company is Irish. The rich businessmen know how to avoid paying taxes. It would matter if the irish people itself were owning the wind turbines, but that is not being discussed here.

10 comments