Kings Mountain in Sligo will be home to the biggest wind farm in Ireland.
The biggest onshore wind farm in Ireland is tucked away in Kings Mountain in the west County Sligo.
Four of the ten turbines are already in place. But they’re so big that the crane used to erect the Dublin Spire is needed to put their blades in place. With a height of 80 metres, and rotor diameter measuring the same, these enormous turbines will generate 25 megawatts, enough energy to power 20,000 homes.
Constructing the wind farm will cost almost 40 million euro, but the cost of the electricity it will produce will be about five per cent less than traditional power. Construction manager David Walsh explains why,
The initial capital cost is a big cost in a wind farm, because the energy is free, it’s wind, whereas in traditional thermal power brown power plants, you have to keep pumping oil into them. So that cost you all the time. Every megawatt you produce you have to pay for in imported oil or coal, whereas the electricity from these wind turbines is completely free.
It is hoped that the Kings Mountain wind farm will be complete by the end of June, when it will be plugged into the national grid, supplying it with green energy.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 14 March 2003. The reporter is Eileen Magnier.
