UK - Energia will be biggest purchaser of new Irish wind energy in 2011

Energia has claimed that it will be the biggest purchaser of the renewable energy produced by Ireland’s new wind farm plants in 2011, based on figures from the Irish Wind Energy Association.

The company said it will increase its renewable energy portfolio by 268 megawatts (MW) this year, with 243 MW coming from 26 Irish wind farm plantss that will become operational during 2011. This equates to 68pc of the total new electricity generated by Ireland’s wind farms this year.

Energia said that 115 MW of new generating capacity from Irish wind power farms was connected to the national grid last year. Over 40pc of this is in Energia’s portfolio. In 2011 this figure is set to rise to around 400 MW, according to figures from the Irish Wind Energy Association.

“In response to the growing number of Irish businesses asking for green power, Energia’s renewable power portfolio is set to grow by 268 MW this year,” said Peter Baillie, managing director, Energia Renewables. “25 MW will come from our Energia windfarms and 243 MW will come from new wind farms all over Ireland. This makes us by far the biggest purchaser of new wind power capacity in Ireland.

“We have signed a large number of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with new wind farm developments all over Ireland, including locations in counties Carlow, Cork, Donegal, Kerry, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary and Wexford.

“We also recently raised a €72 million in financing for our latest group of renewable projects, bringing our total wind farm financing to €115m in the last two years.

“At the moment we are very focused on expanding our renewables business. We are one of the top suppliers of green power to businesses in Ireland. We have 300 MW of operational capacity at the moment and will be increasing this by another 540 MW over this year and next.”

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