Ireland ‘failing’ on wind energy

THE wind energy sector has expressed concern that just 2.3% of wind installations across Europe are in this country – despite our natural climatic advantages.

The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) said that we are failing to capitalise on our “outstanding wind resource”.

According to the latest European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) figures, Ireland installed 233MW of wind last year – just one MW more than in 2008 – and accounted for just 2.3% of total EU installations in 2009.

The league table was topped by Spain, with 2,459MW (24% of total EU installations) installed. Germany ranked second with 1,917MW (19%), Italy third with 1,114MW (11%), France fourth with 1,088MW (11%) and Britain fifth with 1,077MW (10%).

By the end of last year, Ireland had installed a total of 1,260MW of wind power – just 4.8% of that installed by Germany and 6% of Spain.

Irish Wind Energy Association chief executive Dr Michael Walsh said that Ireland needs to accelerate turbine installations year on year if wind energy potential is to be fulfilled.

“We have one of the strongest wind energy resources in Europe and that wind energy has enormous economic potential for Ireland.

While Spain and Germany, the market leaders, have far greater land mass than we do, Denmark has 61% of Ireland’s land mass and yet we have just 36.3% of their wind capacity installed.

This shows how slow we are on capitalising on this unique renewable energy opportunity.