More Government support needed for renewable energy

Renewable energy firm Airtricity today called on the Government to provide incentives to encourage more investment in wind farms…

Renewable energy firm Airtricity today called on the Government to provide incentives to encourage more investment in wind farms.

At the official opening of the country's largest wind farm in Co Donegal today, Paul Dowling, Chief Operations Office of Airtricity, said the company had decided to stop all new wind farm projects in Ireland.

Mr Dowling said that that "mega projects" with an installed capacity of more than 500MW were possible in the future however, he argued that the private sector must be given some sort of financial support from the Government towards the large capital costs involved.

Mr Dowling pointed out that incentives are greater in many other countries and airtricity is currently looking at major projects in Scotland and the United States.

READ MORE

The €86 million wind farm at Meetycat in Co. Donegal has an installed capacity of 72MW, enough to power the equivalent of 45,000 homes.