Limerick has potential to become a world leader in renewable energy

LIMERICK could rival the Middle East as a global leader in energy if plans for generating renewable energy in the Shannon Estuary come to fruition.

That’s according to Mayor of Limerick John Moran, who was speaking as part of Limerick Chamber’s Energy on the Estuary series at the new Technological University of the Shannon engineering campus in Coonagh this week.

The conference was told that plans to develop an offshore wind energy farm in the Shannon Estuary are at a critical juncture, and heard calls for the government to prioritise the opportunity in the upcoming budget as well as into the future with a general election looming.

Mayor Moran said that if the Mid West and national government don’t act on this now, the opportunity will be missed.

“Limerick and the Mid West could be a global leader in that area. It could actually be the one point on the west coast of Europe that generates a lot of electricity, not just for Limerick, not just for Ireland, but actually as an exporter of energy across the whole of Europe,” Mayor Moran said.

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“We can transform the way we even think about it, because you can think of the Middle East in terms of how they approach fossil fuels, and you can imagine what we can do if our energy costs in industry and everything else went down, as it should do at that level, and that’s the future for us.”

A panel discussion at the event featured Pat Keating from the Shannon Foynes Port Company, Diarmuid Collins from Edwards Lifesciences, Mike Morrissey from Analog Devices, Dr John Cosgrove from TUS, Wind Energy Ireland’s Dave Linehan, and Marian Troy from SSE, telling the audience that chief among the priorities for the Mid West is government support in expanding ports.

Vice President of Limerick Chamber, Mairead Connelly, described Shannon Foynes Port as the “jewel in the crown” of the Mid West, as Ireland’s second largest port, telling the conference heard that investment from government as part of Budget 2025 is crucial in bringing new jobs to Limerick, as well as making it a centre of green energy in the Mid West.