Bord na Mona reveals plans for €130m windfarm development
BORD na Mona has announced details of a €130m windfarm development for Mountlucas, Co Offaly, as part of its €1.3bn conventional energy and wind strategy.
The company is planning to build a windfarm at the site, which will host a total of 32 turbines and will be located on the existing cutaway bog with a generating capacity of 80MW.
In total, Bord na Mona plans to have 1,500MW of installed power capacity in place by 2020, with 700MW of that coming from wind power. Because of the need for a back-up plant when the wind was not blowing, this investment in conventional power was essential, the company's head of generation, John Reilly, said.
The Government has set a target of 40pc of our electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020, but, as Mr Reilly explained, this new wind power would also have conventional back-up.
Assets
He said that rather than acquire such assets, the company had decided to build its own. "Buying assets will not help the country achieve its renewable target," he explained.
He added that the conventional plants would be gas fired, the cleanest fossil fuel available, while the company develops the use of biomass to mix in with the peat brined at its Edenderry power plant.
Mr Reilly said the target was to get 30pc of the mix coming from biomass, a "carbon neutral" power source.
It is expected that the construction of the windfarm will take place over an 18 to 24-month period, with up to 30 workers employed on the project at peak.
An application for connection of the windfarm to the national grid has been made to EirGrid. It is included in the Gate 3 list of projects to be processed for connection and it is scheduled to get an offer for connection to the system in early 2011.
A planning application is being prepared for the project and will be submitted to Offaly County Council within the next two months.
- Pat Boyle
