Progress reported on three Mayo renewable energy projects

MAYO County Council is involved with a number of partnerships in researching renewable energy projects.

Michael O'Boyle, head of marine development with Mayo County Council, has outlined progress with three projects – AFLOWT (Accelerating market uptake of Floating Offshore Wind Technology) at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site off the northwest coast, MegaAWE in Bangor Erris, and a hydrogen demonstrator that they are in the process of putting together.

“An energy research and development cluster is beginning to emerge in Mayo and we're trying to help as best we can,” said Mr. O'Boyle, adding that it was very important to establish R&D roots in the county, which can also benefit traditional marine activity.

He cautioned that AFLOWT has been downsized somewhat due to a technical issue, with part of the research going to France.

“We are looking at setting up a new consortium for a new test. We're pushing it at all levels – national and European – to see if we can keep it running.”

Part of the issue came down to licencing and Mr. O'Boyle said the new Marine Area Planning Bill going through the houses of the Oireachtas might sort out such issues in future.

Councillor Mark Duffy said it was disappointing to hear that the reason for the downsizing of the research project was partly due to licencing.

“We want to be the leaders in renewable energy, not the laggards,” he stated.