Ireland hits new record of wind energy production

According to the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA), when combined with the output from Northern Ireland, the island’s total output this morning was 2,490MW.

The windy conditions that have battered Ireland have been be a major boon to the country’s wind-energy production, contributing to its largest ever wind-energy output.

The figure recorded by EirGrid this morning (Wednesday) at 9.30am showed that 1,942MW of energy had been created through the country’s wind energy turbines which is enough to power over 1.26m homes.

Despite us being only a matter of days within the new year, this marks the second time in 2015 that the record has been broken as on 1 January, wind energy output was as high as 1,872MW.

Since the start of the new year, the equivalent of 33pc of Ireland’s energy has been produced through the high winds of recent days.

Throughout the country, there are 188 wind farms currently operating which employ over 3,400 people.

Speaking of the latest results, IWEA chief executive, Kenneth Matthews said, “Last year, here in Ireland we spent €6.7bn on expensive foreign energy imports, and going forward we need to make sure that as much of this lost money stays in Ireland, to stimulate our own domestic economy.”