Offaly’s growing position as Ireland’s Green Energy County was the highlight of the Offaly Green Energy Conference in Tullamore.
The landmark event celebrated Offaly’s leadership in Ireland’s clean‑energy transition. The event was timely, with Offaly emerging as one of the top three counties in Ireland in the provision of clean, green energy, with the capacity to deliver 1.5–2 GW of renewable power. Indeed for January this year, Offaly was the top producer of green energy in Ireland for the first time. This transformation is reshaping the economic landscape of Offaly and positioning the Midlands as a hub for innovation, investment, and sustainable growth.
Hosted by Offaly County Council and the Local Enterprise Office Offaly, the conference brought together national and international experts, policy leaders, global innovators, and major industry stakeholders. Speakers from Eirgrid, SSE Renewables, BnM, RPS Tetra Tech, IDA Ireland and many others shared insights on infrastructure, technology, and the opportunities emerging across sectors such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, precision engineering, and data centres.
One of Ireland’s Top Counties for Renewable Power Generation
The successes which Offaly has been seeing are the result of ambitious and far-reaching strategies which the county began to put into action as early as 2009, aimed at preparing for the green transition by developing opportunities in renewables for the betterment of the people and communities of the county. With 25 large-scale renewable energy projects in operation or in the pipeline, the county is leading the way. Despite Offaly representing just 2% of Ireland’s land bank, the county is on track to deliver 11% of Ireland’s on-shore wind power, 12% of solar and up to 39% of battery storage capacity.
However, the theme of the conference was about more than the ‘brown to green’ transition from peat to renewables which is already taking shape, but about the potential of the ‘green to gold’ opportunity where Offaly is on the cusp of making significant progress. The economic potential which comes from renewables has the potential to be further developed by co-locating industry close to renewable power. In this space, Offaly and the wider Midlands now have a unique opportunity. Developments such as the Rhode Green Energy Park point to an ambitious future, where high-value jobs, innovative companies and cutting-edge research are already being created and supported, while BnM also outlined their plans for Green Energy Parks in the Midlands such as Derrygreenagh. Multinationals are already expressing interest in the developments and the next steps in the process is to ensure complementarity and collaboration in the development of these locations. The economic potential for Green Energy Parks is about more than just locating industry close to power, the opportunity is in developing two-way flows and a broader eco-system of activities centred around renewable power supply. Industries which are large scale energy users have the greatest potential as anchors for such developments, while complimentary enterprises would include those which can make use of waste heat such as engineering and horticulture, as well as industries which can be developed to store and reuse renewable energy such as BESS developments and hydrogen manufacturing.
Supporting Communities and Creating Opportunities
Supporting communities was highlighted as being of central importance in Offaly’s strategy from the outset. As a county with a proud history of peat power generation, the sudden closure of the power stations left a lasting impact on the county. Creating jobs and opportunities for the people of these areas as well as bringing benefits to the communities has been a key goal of Offaly’s strategy. Community development funds have played a strong part in ensuring a return for the people of Offaly, with local community groups benefiting from investment. Next for Offaly is an ambitious plan to combine these funds to develop larger scale legacy projects with the potential to have lasting economic and social benefits for communities in the county. Offaly’s investment in it’s trail network has also been a positive development of the strategy, with hundreds of kilometres of dedicated cycling and walking infrastructure now crisscrossing the county and branching out to join national networks for a unique regenerative tourism proposition. Offaly was the first to incorporate this infrastructure with renewable development when the Mount Lucas amenity opened in the county. In partnership with BnM, Mount Lucas allowed people for the first time in Ireland to get up close to wind power, with walking trails developed throughout the wind farm. The site now hosts Ireland’s only wind farm Park Run and has grown as a community resource for the locality.
The Offaly Green Energy Conference served to highlight the ambition and successes for Offaly to date, and also the potential for the wider Midlands region in embracing the opportunities in green technology and renewable energy.
For more information, contact Offaly County Council or Local Enterprise Office Offaly.
