From: tgray@igc.apc.org (Tom Gray)
Newsgroups: sci.energy
Subject: --Wind Succeeds Irish Coal Mine
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:11:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1466300116:000:3291
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!tgray    Dec 14 10:11:00 1992


/* Written  9:53 am  Dec 14, 1992 by tgray@igc.apc.org in igc:en.energy */
WINDFARM SUCCEEDS COAL
AS MINE PLAYS OUT
 
Construction will begin on Ireland's second wind power project 
early next year.  The four-turbine facility will be built by Arigna
Fuels on a recently-reclaimed coal mine in County Leitrim's Arigna
Mountains.
 
The 1.2-MW plant will be installed during 1993 with support from 
the European Community.  Arigna spokesman Michael Layden said the
EC contributed 500,000 Irish pounds (US $1 million) to  the 1.6-
million-pound (US $3.2-million) project. Arigna Fuels, he said,
expects to eventually expand the project to 10 MW.
 
Layden estimated that each 300-kW WindMaster turbine will generate
more than one million kWh per year at the 9 m/s (20 mph) site.
Because of the region's steady winds, he said, there should be 
sufficient wind to operate the turbines 85 percent of the time.
 
The project, which overlooks Lough Allen on the border between the
Republic of Ireland and Ulster, is 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of
Bellacorick in County Mayo, where a 6.5-MW windfarm has been
installed (see Wind Energy Weekly #481, January 20, 1992, p. 4). 
Like the developer of the Bellacorick plant, Arigna will sell the
power it generates to Ireland's Electricity Supply Board (ESB) for
3.65 Irish pence (US 7 cents) per kWh.
 
The northern counties in the Irish Republic are the country's 
principal source of peat and coal.  The Bellacorick facility of 21
Danish Nordtank turbines was installed earlier this year on a 
reclaimed mine operated by Ireland's state peat company Bord na 
Mona.  The surface mine provided peat to ESB's nearby 40-MW peat-
fired power plant.
 
Bord na Mona estimates that the Bellacorick  turbines will generate
20 million kWh per year at the 8 m/s (18  mph) site for about 3,100
kWh per kilowatt of installed capacity.
 
Similarly, Arigna Fuels mined bituminous coal for a 15-MW plant at
Arigna.  The firm closed the open cast mine last year and has 
reclaimed the site.  The coal-fired power plant will also close 
after it exhausts its existing stockpile.  Arigna Fuels hopes that 
the gradual expansion of the windfarm will enable it to re-employ
some of the newly-unemployed coal miners.
 
===============================

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*******************************************************************
Tom Gray                                 EcoNet/PeaceNet: tgray@igc
Internet/Bitnet: tgray@igc.apc.org            UUCP: uunet!cdp!tgray
Newsgroups: sci.energy