The Irish power utility ESB has applied for a foreshore licence for site investigation works for its 700-800 MW Helvick Head offshore wind project located south of County Waterford and southeast of County Cork in southern Ireland. The project is one of the offshore wind projects that ESB was developing in partnership with Equinor, before the Norwegian group decided to stop offshore wind developments in Ireland in November 2021.
In 2019, ESB and Equinor decided to join forces on offshore wind power in Ireland and partners have identified five offshore wind projects off Ireland so far: Sea Stacks, Helvick, LochGarman, Moneypoint, and Celtic. In April 2021, partners submitted to authorities a foreshore licence application to carry out site investigations for the 1.5 GW Moneypoint project, that would be developed in two phases of 400 MW and 1.1 GW. Since Equinor decided to abandon offshore wind projects in Ireland in November 2021, ESB applied alone for a foreshore license for the Sea Stacks offshore wind project in December 2021.