Race is on to build 250 windfarms for EU's 2020 target
Related Articles
THE rural landscape will be transformed by the construction of almost 250 windfarms over the coming years, new figures reveal.
The current number of 117 windfarms will rapidly increase over the coming decade to 361 as the Government races to meet EU targets which oblige us to produce 40pc of all electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020.
However, the controversial structures -- some of which will produce more power than the new Aghada Power Station opened in Cork last week -- will be unevenly spread throughout the country with the bulk on the west and south coasts.
Kerry will have no fewer than 66 windfarms by 2020, followed by Donegal with 52 and Cork with 46.
Cavan, Longford and Westmeath will have just one each, while none are planned for Carlow and Kildare.
National grid operator EirGrid is responsible for connecting the windfarms with the electricity transmission system, and said yesterday that Ireland was on track to meet a 15pc renewable energy target for this year.
Some 1,379MW of power from renewables is already connected -- enough to power almost 1.4 million homes -- and by 2020 a total of 6,567MW will be in place, assuming the projects go ahead as planned.
Aidan Corcoran, who is in charge of a €4bn upgrade of the national grid, said projects totalling €900m were in the construction or in the planning process.
EirGrid plans to construct 1,000km of high-voltage power lines, and power produced from renewable sources would always be used, if available.
Capacity
"We're increasing the capacity (of the grid) by 50pc," he said. "We operate the all-island market and if the wind is blowing and generating, it is always dispatched.
"As we move to 2020, the connection of the renewables is dependent on the roll-out of the grid. We still have to build in the order of 1,000km of lines."
The lines will run from Donegal to Sligo, Mayo to the east, Kerry to Cork and Cork to Dublin.
"The big issue for us is getting local support and public buy-in. This is akin to rural electrification.
"It's trying to get to the stage where 40pc or more of our power is from renewables," he said.
"One of the big challenges facing the country is connections and getting power to homes, schools, offices and hospitals. That seems to be lost. If we do nothing you will not get major companies investing here."
EirGrid operate a so-called 'Gate' system, where farms are connected in stages and over a period of time. The Gate 1 process is almost complete, and projects in Gate 2 and Gate 3 will be connected as the grid is upgraded. This will result in 6,567MW of power being connected.
But the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) said that some projects already with planning permission were not guaranteed a connection because they were outside the Gate process. Projects totalling 11,000MW are outside the Gate system.
"It's a very frustrating process," chief executive Dr Michael Walsh said. "There's no alignment between the Gate process and planning. You have projects with planning that are not in the Gate process, and others in the Gate process that cannot get planning.
"You will get an indicative timescale from the Gate process, but that's the problem. Some of the banks have money to lend, but they can't because there's no certainty on grid connection."
The cost of building a windfarm runs from €1.8m per MW for onshore and up to €4m for offshore projects.
The IWEA says about €14bn will be invested in windfarms to meet the 40pc target.
- Paul Melia
Irish Independent
