With climate change we are going to continue to move away from fossil fuels, so it is good to learn about the alternatives.

Wind power is one of what's known as a renewable energy and here The Irish Wind Energy Association have given resources for teachers, parents and pupils to learn more about this invisible force.

Did you know?
There are just under 400 wind farms on the island of Ireland – the first Irish wind farm was built in 1992 in Mayo and it is still running today.

The same breeze that dries your clothes and flies your kite also creates electricity to keep the lights on in your home and school.

The wind moves the blades on a turbine. A generator turns the energy from the moving blades into electricity. This electricity flows through power lines to your home.

See information sheet here for more details on how it works:

The basics of wind energy

Wind energy is often called 'green or clean energy'. This is because it replaces dirty fuels like coal, oil or gas. It is better for the environment. It is also good for Ireland because it will never run out and it means we don’t need to spend as much buying energy from other countries.

RTÉ's Eco Eye on cutting our emissions

Ireland is a record breaker
Ireland is currently on top of the world leader board for the share of electricity provided by onshore wind energy. Our windy island is the perfect location for wind energy.

Ireland also has some of the world’s best offshore wind energy resources and in years to come we will generate far more clean electricity than we could ever need.

  • Some examples for you based on the amount of Wind energy generated in 2020 (approximately 10,500,000,000 KWh)
  • Running a PlayStation 5 (0.2KWh) 24hrs/365 days a year for every child in the Republic of Ireland (548,693 - Census 2016) for the next 10 years would use 9,613,101,360 KWh. That would still leave us with 886,898,640 KWh of 2020 energy left.
  • The savings in carbon emissions from those figures in 2020 would be the equivalent of taking 1.4 million cars off the road.
  • It is also the equivalent of powering more than 2.2 million Irish homes for a year.
  • When we get into appliances, the numbers get enormous.
  • A 7-10 minute shower is 1 KWh so we provided electricity for 10.5 billion showers in 2020
  • Charging an iPhone takes, apparently, 1-2 KWh per annum so our power in 2020 was the equivalent of powering billions of iPhones for an entire year.

Junior to first class Primary School classes

Activity sheets and information for up to sixth class

If you want to learn more just visit Irish Wind Energy Education