EirGrid has completed its 2026 marine and coastal survey campaign for the Powering Up Offshore – South Coast programme. Building on the 2025 survey programme, the latest campaign covered 2,337km of maritime area and involved almost 70,000 hours of work.
The surveys collected data on marine, coastal and environmental conditions to improve understanding of the project area and inform the development of infrastructure options. The findings will support ongoing engineering, environmental and planning assessments for infrastructure associated with the Tonn Nua maritime area, part of the Irish government’s South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy (SC-DMAP).
The completion of the surveys comes as EirGrid continues a 12-week public consultation on emerging infrastructure options to connect the Tonn Nua maritime area to the national grid. The consultation runs until 8 December and forms part of the wider Powering Up Offshore – South Coast programme.
The consultation seeks 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.
