Irish developer Simply Blue Energy (SBE) has put wheels in motion on an up-to-1GW floating wind project in the Celtic Sea, having handed in its application to government to carry out lead-off seabed investigations at the site 35km off the country’s south coast.

The Emerald development, which would be built in an area off Kinsale, County Cork, would start as a 100MW project, a first “stepping-stone” toward a 1GW complex, designed to underpin local supply chain growth and infrastructure expansion.