SSE Submit New Application For Offshore Windfarm

A mighty windfall…?

ith opposition all along the coast – including Greystones, of course – SSE has submitted new plans for its Arklow Bank Wind Park 2.

Filed with An Coimisiún Pleanála, the new plans include a reduction in the number of off-shore turbines, from 56 to 53.

This follows a request back in April 2025 from by the planning authorities for further information, whilst closer to home, the offshore wind farms Codling, Array and RWE have faced judicial review settlement claims and similar planning hurdles.

The lucrative judicial reviews against the wind farm companies may have dried up just after Justice Richard Humphreys referred to Ivan Toole’s second High Court shot as “cynical” and “ludicrous“, finding the Greystones fisherman’s objections against Codling almost entirely without merit.

The offshore waters are muddied further by local campaigns employing unrealistic, scare tactic posters. See below.

The Arklow Bank Wind Park 2 is planned as an 800MW wind farm off the coasts of Wicklow and north Wexford, the original planning application having been filed by Sure Partners Limited, which is wholly owned by SSE.

The request for further information has resulted in an updated Environmental Impact Assessment Report and an updated Natura Impact Statement, SSE Renewables’ James O’Hara stating, “The additional information we’ve now provided reflects detailed work we’ve undertaken over the past year in response to stakeholder feedback and observations on the proposed development. As a result of this work, we are now proposing infrastructure layout refinements as well as a reduction in the number of offshore wind turbines to be installed at Arklow Bank.”

Also hoping to make it onto our horizons are the Oriel Wind Farm, an April 2025 request for further information getting a response in January, North Irish Sea Array getting an extension that same month for their response, and Dublin Array due to deliver their response for further information on September 17th.

You can view and download the new Arklow Bank Wind Park 2 submission from SSE Renewables here, and more on wind farm news here.