Windfarm Projects of Up to 520 MW Driving Ireland's Renewable Energy Targets

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The Irish coast line and the Irish Sea have become host to a number of wind energy projects and with more to come it seems that the much vaunted wind potential of the region will be exploited at and increasing pace through 2010.

The Arklow Bank offshore windpark will see seven 3.6 MW turbines supplied by GE Wind Energy (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut) and Airtricity (Dublin, Ireland - Burlington, Massachusetts), co-developers, producing 25 MW in a project, which is planned as the first phase of a much larger project that Airtricity hopes to create over the next few years. Proposals have been made possible under a foreshore lease, which could provide for more than 520 MW of offshore windpower on the Arklow Bank.

This will be the first commercial project in the world to use turbines rated at over 3.6 MW (Enercon has a prototype of over 4 MW operating off the German coast). The wind park will be owned and operated by GE Wind Energy as a platform to demonstrate its new 3.6 MW technology. Airtricity, Ireland's largest renewable energy company, holds an option to purchase the project after the demonstration phase is completed.

Airtricity chief executive Eddie O'Connor said, "This is a landmark demonstration project for Airtricity, GE Wind Energy and Ireland in general. This first phase of the project is expected to produce enough clean wind energy to serve the annual needs of about 16,000 Irish households. When fully completed, the project promises to be a considerable source of renewable energy for Ireland and make a positive contribution to Ireland's renewable, clean energy policies," said O'Connor.

The project is scheduled for completion in October and will be connected to the public grid in Arklow, where GE Wind Energy will also establish a permanent station to facilitate operation and maintenance of the wind turbines.

A 300MW onshore windfarm has been given the go ahead by the Irish government in the western County Mayo. The state peat supplier Bord na Mona and its partner Hibernian Wind Power (HWP) are planning to complete the $342 million project by 2010. HWP, a unit of Ireland's Electricity Supply Board hopes to start construction in 2004 after a number of conditions have been vetted, such as environmental impact and proximity to existing homes. HWP says that it is premature to comment on a turbine supplier and the field is open. HWP windfarms have previously been supplied by Denmark's Vestas (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Germany's Enercon (Aurich, Germany).

If completed as scheduled, the Mayo windfarm could provide enough energy to supply some 200,000 homes representing around seven per cent of Ireland's electricity requirement. The Irish government is aiming to have 1,250 MW of green energy online by 2010. Currently, according to the Irish Wind Energy Association, windpower has made the most progress toward the target with 200 MW installed and enough projects in the planning and construction stages to make that target seem modest.

A $160 million project across the Irish Sea, five miles off Barrow on the northwest UK coast is being planned by Centrica (LSE:CAN) (Windsor, UK) in partnership with the Danish energy group DONG and the Norwegian power company Statkraft. The three companies have jointly bought Barrow Offshore Wind, the company which owns the rights to develop the site.

The 90 MW project will have up to 30 turbines supplying power Centrica's subsidiary, British Gas, which has agreed to take the total output of the facility which will represent around six per cent of Centrica's renewable energy total.