US backer revives its plans for €650m Shannon LNG project 

The move comes despite Environment Minister Eamon Ryan’s recent freeze on new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals pending an energy supply review.

A previous plan for the Shannon estuary was put on ice in 2019 after criticism by climate activists and US celebrities over the importation of fracked gas.

The new €650m project includes a 600 megawatt (MW) power plant with an integrated 120 MW battery storage facility, and an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal moored at a jetty in the Shannon estuary, which would receive and store the gas.

The project would be the first of its kind in Ireland and would be able to power 600,000 homes.

It will sit on a 600-acre site in Tarbert in Co Kerry, the same land bank that was used for the previous project.

John McElligott of local campaign group Safety Before LNG says the Government is ignoring its own LNG freeze, which was announced in May this year.

“It seems that the door is constantly being kept open for Shannon LNG in spite of clear Government policy to the contrary. This is unacceptable,” he said.

The plant is to be privately funded, NFE confirmed, with An Bord Pleanála handling the application directly because it was granted fast-track planning as a “strategic infrastructure”.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, Climate & Communications said that no planning application had yet been lodged.

“If this, or any similar project were to be the subject of a planning application, it is part of the consideration of such an application that the Government policy is relevant,” it said in an emailed statement.

Shannon LNG Ltd, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy (NFE), said today that it is ready to apply for the first phase of development of the site.

NFE told An Bord Pleanála in its pre-application consultations that “the proposed development is not dependent on fracked gas” and that “it is confident that it can source gas from non-fracked sources in order to meet the energy demand and security of supply in Ireland”.

“The Shannon Technology & Energy Park will be transformative for the region,” said Sam Abdalla, NFE’s vice-president of project development.

“The proposed development will provide a major energy infrastructure asset that addresses Ireland’s looming shortfall in stable electricity generation and overcomes the issue of energy isolation.”

The Government has pledged to generate 70pc of electricity from renewables by 2030 and has ruled out the use of fracked gas.

American singer Cher, filmmaker Michael Moore and actor Mark Ruffalo have all spoken out about  the project, and almost 50 US NGOs signed a letter to then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in 2019 urging him to abandon it.

Construction plant is expected to take three years and provide 70 long-term jobs. Plans to build a series of data centres on the site could add a further 400 jobs, NFE said.