Wind
There are essentially two types of wind energy; wind farms and single turbines.
Wind farms
Wind farms have become fairly widespread in Ireland and most people would not have to travel too far to reach one. Being the first European island in the Atlantic to receive the powerful westerly winds; the wind is a great natural resource in Ireland. On the island, approximately 10% of our electricity needs are met by wind when it is blowing.
A decade ago, a 1MW wind turbine would have been a large machine. Today they would be regarded as of average power. In Europe 7,588MW of wind power was installed in 2006, this is worth about €9 billion in investments On the island of Ireland 609MW is currently generated by wind farms, 496MW in the Republic (including 25MW offshore) and 113MW in Northern Ireland. In the UK, the breakdown is as follows;
Typical turbines at a wind farm would have a height of 60m to 80m from ground to the tip of the blade. Each of the three blades would typically measure between 30m and 40m in length.
Single Turbines
Single turbines come in two forms – domestic and commercial users.
Domestic Users
The 1MW machine mentioned above equates to 1000kW. In comparison, a large domestic turbine would be rated as a 5kW machine. A rotor diameter of 2 metres might yield about 10% of an average annual household's consumption of roughly 4,500 kWh. As regards tower height, the higher the better is a good rule but the recommended minimum height of domestic turbines will depend on location. A tower held in place with guy wires should be tall enough to hold the wind turbine up and out of any turbulence, into a good clean wind. In a very open location a 6 metre tower might do but in many cases it will be necessary to go to 12m or 18m to reach clean wind. Recently the Irish government has been looking at back-metering. This process is widely available on the European mainland but has proven more politically difficult to establish in Ireland. In Germany, people can have PV (photovoltaic) panels on their roof and sell any electricity generated back to the grid.
Probably, the best website for domestic wind turbines is Hugh Piggott's Scoraig Wind.
Commercial Users
Commercial Users are beginning to emerge in Ireland. Commercial users would be large electricity users that decide to meet some of their load with one or more turbines and get the rest of their needs from the grid. At present, this is not viable for smaller companies but may be in the future – but it should be the smart option for large users of electricity.
Planning approval for wind turbines is more likely in an industrial setting. One or more turbines can be located on site or at a mutually acceptable location. The wind turbines are connected directly into the sites electrical system removing the need for a new grid connection.
Dundalk IT provides a good example of a large energy user meeting part of their electricity demand through wind energy.
BEO employees have worked in the wind farm sector for several years and have the experience to assist your wind farm project. We have worked in Ireland, the UK and the United States and have good contacts throughout the sector.
To further discuss a wind energy idea with us, please feel free to contact us.
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