Renewable Energy-Wind

Humans have been using the wind to provide energy for thousands of years. The power of the wind can be used to provide either mechanical energy or electrical energy. When wind fills a sail, its energy is being used to push a sailboat through the water. Farmers have been using wind energy for many years to pump water from wells and wind has also been used to turn large grinding stones to mill or grind wheat or corn – hence the word ‘windmill’.

Wind energy may be harnessed by wind turbines to produce electricity. The wind must be fairly constant and the wind speed must be at least 15 km per hour. The height of the turbine mast and the length of the turbine blades are also very important factors in terms of the total amount of electricity generated. The wind turbines usually produce about 50 to 300 kW (kilowatts) of electricity each (1 kW will light ten 100 W (watt) light bulbs). When a number of wind turbines are located together they form a wind farm. Windfarms can be built either on-shore or off-shore.

In Cork County, the Currabwee windfarm generates 4.62 MW of electricity. Offshore in the Irish Sea, the Arklow Bank Windfarm is expected to generate up to 520 MW of electricity. As a comparison, the large turf-burning powerstations in Bellacorick, Co Mayo (40 MW), Lanesboro, Co Longford (85 MW), and the three in Co. Offaly (Shannonbridge -125 MW, Rhode - 40 MW and Edenderry – 117 MW) produce a total of 407 MW of electricity.

Wind is a clean source of energy. Unlike generating electricity from fossil fuels, wind power can be harnessed without the emission of greenhouse gases. In fact, every unit of electricity produced from wind rather than traditional fossil fuel generation prevents the emission of 2.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides-gases that cause climate change, acid rain and air pollution.