THE inauguration of innogy’s first wind farm in Ireland was officially celebrated last week by Hans Bünting, Chief Operating Officer Renewables, innogy SE, with the announcement of a €10,000 annual funding award to the local community within 5km of the wind farm and including the whole village of Knocknagashel.
Pupils from Lyreacrompane National School and project contractors joined other invited guests at a special event in Tralee to mark the funding windfall and to celebrate the opening of the German company’s 10.2 megawatt (MW), three turbine Dromadda Beg Wind Farm.
As part of the school’s green programme, pupils have named the three turbines: The Three Amigos.
Continued below…
Principal teacher, Ciara O’Connor said: “The pupils have worked hard on the school’s application for their biodiversity green school flag. As part of our green school lessons, we recently enjoyed an energy workshop run by Killarney National Park where the pupils learned about both renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Finding out about how Dromadda Beg Wind Farm was built and naming the turbines has been a useful and fun learning experience for all the pupils in the school.”
Hans Bünting said: “Ireland is going through a major energy transition, comparable to what Germany started many years ago. It is the Irish Government’s intention that by 2050 your Irish homes, cars, workplaces, shops, schools and leisure centres will all be powered by energy from a renewable source that is generated in Ireland.”
“The intention of innogy is to bring the energy transaction to a success. In 2016, we opened an Irish office and set up a team of local renewables experts. They laid the foundation for our first project, Dromadda Beg Wind Farm, which I am delighted to inaugurate today.”
“But also important to us, when developing our projects, is that we are able to work with local and regional businesses in order to maximise the economic benefits to the local economy. I am delighted that during the €17 million construction, 89% of the labour we used came from within 40km of the site and 70% of the materials for the civil works have been procured from within 30km of the site.”
“We are also committed to supporting the community activities and projects close to our projects. To that end, I am delighted that innogy will deliver a €10,000 annual community benefit fund to the local community.”
For further information on Drommada Beg Wind Farm visit www.innogy.com/dromaddabeg