News

Wind farm for north coast

1 October 2002

A new off-shore wind farm could soon be generating enough green electricity for over 65,000 homes. An area 5km north of Portstewart has been earmarked for the development.

A consortium consisting of B9 Energy, Renewable Energy Systems and Powergen has been selected to install and maintain the turbines. Work should begin after a twelve month assessment period.

The UK currently generates around 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity from wind. This sight could generate up to 250MW. The percentage of Northern Ireland's electricity generated from wind will rise from a dismal 1.7 to a more respectable 11 per cent.

This is great news and will go a long way towards meeting the Northern Ireland's CO2 reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

The wind farm should be generating electricity by 2005.