EirGrid has completed its 2026 marine and coastal survey campaign for the Powering Up Offshore – South Coast programme, marking a significant milestone in plans to connect offshore renewable energy to the national electricity grid.

The campaign involved almost 70,000 hours of survey work across 2,337km of maritime area, building on the previous year’s survey programme.

The investigations gathered data on marine, coastal and environmental conditions to help inform the development of infrastructure options for connecting offshore renewable energy from Ireland’s south coast to homes, businesses and communities.

The findings will support ongoing engineering, environmental and planning assessments for infrastructure associated with the Tonn Nua maritime area, part of the Government’s South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy (SC-DMAP).

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Adam Cronin, Head of Offshore – South Coast at EirGrid, said: "The successful completion of our 2026 marine and coastal survey campaign is another significant step forward for the Powering Up Offshore – South Coast programme. The surveys provide vital information that will help us better understand the marine and coastal environment and inform the development of infrastructure options needed to connect offshore renewable energy to the national electricity grid.

"The completion of this work would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of local communities, stakeholders, fisheries and other marine users who engaged with us throughout the process. We greatly appreciate the time, knowledge and collaboration they provided, which helped us complete this important work safely and effectively."

EirGrid thanked local communities, landowners, fisheries representatives and other marine users for their cooperation and engagement throughout the survey programme.

The completion of the surveys comes as the company continues a 12-week public consultation on emerging infrastructure options for connecting the Tonn Nua maritime area to the national grid.

Running until 8 December, the consultation is seeking public feedback on potential landfall locations, offshore cable corridors, offshore substations, grid connection points and onshore transmission cable routes in Cork and Wexford.

Once developed, the project is expected to facilitate the connection of approximately 900MW of offshore renewable energy, enough to power almost one million homes.