In 1992, Ireland completed construction of its first commercial wind farm at Bellacorrick in County Mayo heralding the start of the country’s transition to clean power. The 20-turbine wind farm with an operational capacity of 6 MW provided enough power for around 4,500 homes. In the 30+ years since, the island of Ireland now has almost 400 wind farms, with its largest being Galway Wind Park with an operating capacity of 174 MW.
At the end of 2024, the country’s industry body, Wind Energy Ireland, announced that it had achieved an important milestone as it reached 5 GW of installed onshore wind capacity across the country.
Natural Power’s contribution
Since opening our first Irish office in Dublin, in 2013, we have enabled the commissioning of 2.3 GW of the 5GW milestone, advising upon 96 projects and providing enough energy to power 1.3 million homes. Our experts have delivered consultancy services across the project lifecycle, from due diligence for Cloncreen wind farm in County Offaly to project manager, owner’s engineer and project supervisor design process (PSDP) at Cushaling in counties Offaly and Kildare. Natural Power has always supported the drive for new onshore wind technologies, even securing consent for kitepower in Co. Mayo.
More recently, we expanded office space in the country, opening our second location in Castlebar where the team was joined by Alan Dillion, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
We have also been working on expanding our team in the country to offer more services to clients, with the appointment of Joseph Gibbons, who will be leading our new Irish-based advisory team from Dublin.
Looking towards the next milestones for wind energy
The Irish wind industry is projected to go from strength to strength with announcements earlier this year including the Future Framework, a long-term vision of support for offshore wind outlining a roadmap for the delivery of 37 GW of offshore wind by 2050, and the South Coast DMAP which set out four maritime areas for future offshore development.
Discussing the future challenges at Wind Energy Ireland's Annual Conference
Join our Irish team at the Wind Energy Ireland annual conference, taking place at the end of this week in Dublin, the team will be showcasing the projects we have helped across the country. Visit us in the venue or book a meeting with one of our team in advance by emailing sayhello@naturalpower.com