Make no mistake: the withdrawal of Corio Generation from Ireland’s first tranche of offshore wind farms is a body blow to the Government’s ambitious renewable energy plans for the period up to 2030. Corio applied to build a 450 megawatt (MW) wind farm on the Sceirde Rocks off Connemara, a €1.4 billion project that would have powered 350,000 homes and helped deliver a chunk of the needed carbon emissions reduction. The withdrawal announcement reduces the number of expected key projects from six to five, with four developers getting state contracts under “phase one” of an auction process. “This is devastating...