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A taster……Irelands Wind farms

Colin Broderick — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:22:49 +0000

I seem to be starting all my posts like this of late, yet again, its been a long time since the last post. I’m back in DIT and working on the transport stuff again after my time in Bord Pleanala.

As part of my work in the Bord I did a small bit of research into the whole area of all the wind turbine applications that passed through the boards doors. The idea was to identify the main issues that crop up in all the planning appeals.

All cases which involved wind turbines were identified. Below is a map of all the granted applications by the Bord since 1998 for applications involving 6 turbines or more:

Link to the Larger Map (Pls note some of the geolocated points are in the wrong location these will be fixed in time)

By the Numbers

In total 1530 turbines were applied for, only 872 were granted permission on appeal.

The county with the greatest number of turbines with permission is Mayo with 216 turbines, the majority of which are part of the Bellacorrick wind farm.

Next week I will dig a little deeper into the data that I gathered on our windfarms and detail some of the main issues considered during the assessment of these applications including links to the spreadsheets containing the data. However until then, the big question is just how many of these have been built?

As always!

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Wind farms break 1,000MW barrier

Colin Broderick — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:19:38 +0000

CHARLIE TAYLOR

The amount of electricity generated by Ireland’s wind farms broke the 1,000 megawatts (MW) barrier for the first time last weekend, providing enough power to supply the needs of 650,000 homes.

The very windy conditions last weekend resulted in an all-time peak wind output of 1064 MW on Saturday, generating enough power to supply the needs of 650,000 homes, according to EirGrid.

Wind output remained high throughout the day, with renewable energy at some times supplying 33 per cent of demand from electricity customers.

“This recent high level of wind generation shows the significant potential we have in Ireland to utilise this clean, green, indigenous fuel,” said Dermot Byrne, chief executive of EirGrid, the agency that operates the State’s electricity transmission system.

“Ireland has ambitious renewable energy targets and the breaking of the 1,000 MW barrier for the first time is a significant step on the road to meeting them,” he added.

Ireland is reputed to have the best general wind resource in Europe and wind farms here have a higher average output than those on the continent. Currently, there are over 90 wind farms in operation which have the capacity to supply up to a maximum of 1,161 MW at optimum conditions.

In addition, Ireland has 238 MW of capacity from hydro stations in counties Cork, Dublin, Donegal and Clare and a further 58 MW of power capacity from landfill gas.

The Government wants 15 per cent of all electricity used in the Republic to be generated from renewable sources by next year.

Source: IrishTimes

Offshore wind energy firms hopeful of major EU support

Colin Broderick — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:05:14 +0000

OFFSHORE WIND energy producers are hoping major support for the industry will be signalled by EU Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs, when he addresses their annual conference in Dublin today.

Currently in excess of 2,500 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind energy are in planning, alongside about another 8,000MW of onshore wind energy, representing potential investment of about €23 billion.

But while this represents just a fraction of the island’s total wind energy potential, the electricity is vastly in excess of Ireland’s own demand, and selling it abroad is dependent on major investment in the national grid and interconnectors to the UK.

Members of the National Offshore Wind Association (Now) which holds its annual conference today, are hoping Mr Piebalgs will say EU enthusiasm to replace imported fossil fuels with renewable energy will result in financial support for developing the Irish industry.

In recent weeks the European Investment Bank announced up to €300 million in soft loans for an interconnector between Ireland and the UK, while a further allocation of up to €200 million was approved for development of the ESB’s renewable energy businesses, principally wind farms.

However, given the potential of Irish wind energy, Now says many more interconnectors will be needed if wind energy is to be exploited.

Sources told The Irish Times an alternative proposal, that Irish wind farms located in the Irish Sea would seek connections to the UK grid, is also being considered. A third possibility is that a separate grid would be established to cater for offshore power.

A report from wind turbine manufacturer Siemens in recent weeks, calculated the value of proposed European wind farms over the next 25 years to be more than €300 billion.

Proposed Irish offshore wind farms included in this calculation were:

Clogher Head Oriel Wind Farm, which projects 330MW;

Dublin Array Saorgus Energy, offering 725MW;

Proposal from Codling Bank Fred Olsen/Treasury Holdings would add 1100MW;

Airtricity is offering 500MW through its Arklow Bank 2 project;

Na Sceirde Fuinneamh in Co Galway is projecting 100MW.

Based on calculations by Siemens that it costs in the region of €3 million per MW to install wind generation, Irish members of Now would account for a potential investment of almost €7 billion.

Source: IrishTimes – www.irishtimes.com

€300bn for offshore windfarms – Are windfarms a good idea?

Colin Broderick — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:06:58 +0000

Lets hope the ESB will speed up the connection of wind farms in the future. This industry appears to have great potential for employment in the future and who knows if we get it right we could make a good deal of money from selling the extra electricity we dont use.

I would also like to mention that an explosion of on shore windfarms may not be welcomed as well, as one would think. Because lets face it, they can be seen from a fare distance away, they ain’t small!! I know EIS’s can be a right pain to get right, but they all come together to allow the authorities to make a better judgement of these turbines on the people and the land. Maybe offshore is a much better way to go? Sure there some proper winds out of the west cost.

Floating Wind Farms thats what we need, move them around over the contential shelf like the oil rigs do!

Good to see so much money will be invested though.

SOME €300 billion is set to be invested in European offshore windfarms over the next 20 years, according to a new report from wind turbine manufacturer Siemens.

The company, which recently signed contracts to supply up to 500 wind turbines for Dong Energy’s offshore windfarms in northern Europe, said there were existing commitments from investors for about 100 gigawatts (100,000 mega watts) across the continent.

At an installation cost cost of about €3 million per mega watt, Siemens said the total potential investment was in the order of €300 billion.

The company warned however that Ireland’s system of queuing projects for “gate” connections to the national grid meant Ireland would not be quick to achieve a significant share of the potential.

Currently the Republic has five offshore windfarms in the pipeline with a potential generating capacity of 2,655 mega watts, representing potential investment of almost €7 billion.

The next allocation of grid connections, known as Gate III, is due by next year. According to the Irish Wind Energy Association, though, Gate III is likely to give permissions for grid connections timed for about 2016.

Association chief executive Michael Walsh said some of the projects which might be approved under Gate III had been in the pipeline since 2004. To be in the pipeline since 2004 with a possible offer next year, and a potential connection in 2016, represented too much uncertainty over too long a time, he said.

Mr Walsh said, taking onshore and offshore wind proposals together, “there is about eight gigawatts in development, with a potential investment value of €16 billion to €18 billion”. About 3.9 giga watts were expected to be sanctioned by Gate III, he said.

A Department of Energy source acknowledged the difficulty but referred to plans by EirGrid to double the grid capacity under a €4 billion investment, by 2025.

The source also said it was planned to transfer control of the foreshore from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Environment in a bid to expedite the planning process for off-shore installations.

“We must upgrade the grid,” the source added. “There are parts of the country, usually where the wind is, where the network would not support the connection. Also we want to streamline planning and control so connections are ready and licences can be awarded like those for oil and gas.”
Source: IRISHTIMES