Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O'Brien is attending a meeting in Germany focused on improving cooperation in offshore wind and hydrogen infrastructure across the North Sea region.
The North Sea Summit is being attended by leaders and energy ministers from ten Western and northern European countries in Hamburg.
The collective goal that has been set by the representatives at the third edition of the gathering is turning the North Sea region into Europe’s "green power plant".
As host of the third edition of the format, Germany invited leaders and energy ministers from Ireland, the UK, Denmark, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Iceland to take part in talks.
Speaking ahead of the summit, Mr O'Brien said: "As a small, windy island at the edge of Europe, the offshore energy potential of Ireland is huge.
"Increasing our cross-border electricity interconnection will enhance European energy security, increase our economic competitiveness and critically reduce consumer prices."
Speaking to RTÉ News this morning, Mr O'Brien said that Ireland can play "a significant role" to deliver offshore wind energy at scale.
"We've shown how we can do that onshore. We're actually a European leader with regard to the integration of renewables into our grid, and we're in the process of constructing our first interconnected continental Europe [link]," said Mr O'Brien, referring to the Celtic Interconnector, an underwater cable that will link Ireland's grid with France by 2028.
Asked if he plans to discuss further grid connections to link Ireland with other European countries, Mr O'Brien said he has already held discussions with "another significant European state" on the matter and intends to bring forward a memorandum of understanding in April.
He added: "Interconnection is going to be very important for Ireland, but not just islanded states, for Europe in general, that we can share energy across the union."
Mr O'Brien said that close to 7GW has already been consented for offshore wind farms in Irish waters.
"Our focus now is getting that into construction, but private sector finance is critically important," he said.
In December, 44% of Ireland's electricity was generated through renewables, according to EirGrid, the operator and developer of the country's electricity grid.
The Government has set an ambitious target for renewables to account for 80% of the country's grid by 2030.
At the summit, Mr O’Brien is set to take part in a ministerial meeting on financing offshore infrastructure, participate in a stakeholder panel on the business case for developing offshore wind farms, and chair a roundtable discussion on offshore renewable hydrogen.
More than 100 company representatives will also take part in the summit.
The first North Sea Summit was held in Denmark in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as European governments looked to reduce their dependence on fossil fuel imports, particularly from Russia, and improve energy security within their own markets.
A second summit was held in 2023 in Belgium.
Participating countries have set a collective goal of installing up to 300GW of offshore wind capacity in the North Sea region by 2050.
To put that into context, one gigawatt generated by a power plant can power a medium-sized European city of approximately 500,000 residents, according to energy experts.
Ireland's electrical grid is due to be connected to the European Union’s internal energy market for the first time in 2028 via the Celtic Interconnector.
The Government has set a target of generating 5GW of capacity in offshore wind energy by 2030.
It said it is actively exploring further interconnection with other European partners.
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is hosting the summit, has previously talked about developing the North Sea into "the largest reservoir of clean energy in the world".
NATO representatives have also been invited to the talks, reflecting a growing conversation in European capitals over the need to protect the continent's critical energy infrastructure against hybrid threats and sabotage.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was scheduled to attend the summit but did not travel in order to attend the funeral in Co Cork of former Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley, who died last Friday.
UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will also not attend the Hamburg summit, a spokesperson for the German federal government confirmed at the weekend.
Arctic tensions overshadow talks
Fears over US designs on the Arctic island of Greenland may overshadow the talks, which come just days after US President Trump backed away from his threat to seize Greenland by force and level punitive tariffs against European NATO allies who stand in his way.
Mr Trump said he had reached a "framework" agreement with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, but this sparked both relief and confusion as the details have not been disclosed.
"We will have to pay increased attention to all parts of NATO's European territory," Mr Merz said on Thursday after an extraordinary European Council meeting.
"This concerns the North above all."
Also on the guest list today will be Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who visited Greenland on Friday, and representatives of NATO and the European Commission as well as Iceland.
"Given the make-up of the meeting, I am certain that security in the High North will also be of interest to the participants," said Steffen Meyer, spokesperson for Mr Merz.
