State company BnM has dismantled one of Ireland’s oldest wind farms to make way for a much larger project.
BnM (formerly Bord na Móna) is building the third phase of the country’s biggest wind farm at Oweninny, Bellacorrick, Co Mayo.
To make way for this, the company decommissioned the original wind turbines there, which have been operating since 1992 and generated enough electricity to power up to 4,500 homes.
BnM says that decommissioning began in November and involved the removal of 21 turbines in all.
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The company will replace them with 18 much bigger turbines, each of which individually can generate 6.45 mega watts of electricity.
[ Bord na Móna earns €32m profitOpens in new window ]
That is the same amount of power produced in total by all 21 of the machines the company has dismantled.
Lurgan, Co Armagh-based Plaswire will recycle the wind turbine blades into products used in construction boards, panels, fencing, walkways and kerbs.
Specialist materials business Plaswire recently developed a system for converting turbine blades into a product called RX Polymer, which can be used in construction.
Disposing of the fibreglass blades when they have reached the end of their useful lives poses a problem for the energy industry.
Plaswire’s system means that the used equipment does not have to be dumped in landfills.
Many other turbine components, some of which are metal, are also recycled.
Andrew Billinsley, Plaswire chief executive, acknowledged that end-of-life turbines posed “a real challenge” and said his company helps reduce their impact on the environment.
Tom Egan, BnM’s head of asset management, noted that Bellacorrick played a “pioneering role” in the Irish energy industry.
Alan Dillon, Minister of State for Small Business, acknowledged that the Co Mayo power plant had occupied a key place in the industry’s history since it began generating electricity more than 30 years ago.
