Ireland Turning Bogs into Windfarms

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Irish state-owned heating and energy group, Bord na Móna (Newbridge, Kildare), is looking to turn its peat bogs into a 2,000-megawatt (MW) wind energy goldmine.

The company has announced the Clean Energy Hub which will involve erecting hundreds of wind turbines across a number of planned windfarms over 20,000 hectares of cutaway peatland bogs stretching between East Offaly and West Kildare. The energy created will be primarily exported to the U.K. and mainland Europe via new interconnector links and generate an estimated €1 billion ($1.4 billion) in revenues a year for the nation. It expects to fully commission the project in 2020.

"I am delighted to be announcing the launch of the Bord na Móna Clean Energy Hub and to issue an invitation to all other partners to join with us in preparing a single planning application," said Bord na Móna Chairman, John Horgan. "Windfarms are innovative and profitable ways of continuing our mandate to extract maximum economic and social value from the lands we hold in trust for the benefit of all people of Ireland."

Ireland's Minister for Communications Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, welcomed the move. "We can see here today that cutaway bog far away from concentrations of people can be a suitable location for wind power generation. In this regard I recognise the significance of what Bord na Móna are announcing today. Yesterday I launched the first stage in a consultative process which will lead to a policy framework under which any renewable energy export projects would be regulated. I have been working hard with my colleagues in the British government to develop a framework to allow for exports of green energy to Britain and beyond".

In related news, Minister Rabbitte, officially opened Bord na Mona's new 40 MW windfarm development at Bruckana, located on cutaway peatland on the borders of three Irish counties: Laois, Kilkenny, Tipperary.

In January this year, Ireland struck a deal to supply the U.K. with green electricity to help it reach its renewable energy targets which would in turn provide Ireland with billions of euro in income. The governments of both countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will allow Ireland to export as much as 3,000 MW of wind energy to the U.K. via an interconnector running between Ireland and Wales. For additional information, see January 28, 2013, article - Ireland Strikes Wind Energy Deal with U.K..

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