€31.5m wind farm for North Kerry
NORWAY-BASED renewable energy giant Statkraft has said it plans to begin contruction of a 23.1 megawatt windfarm on the border between Kerry and Limerick this month.
The windfarm will be located at Kilathmoy, and the project will consist of seven 3.3 MW Nordex N100 turbines, 100 metres in height.
Expected to be fully commissioned late next year, total investment by the company, including purchase and development costs, is expected to amount to around€31.5million.
The windfarm is the company’s first in the Republic of Ireland and follows its recent acquisition of Element Power Ireland Ltd, which has a portfolio of 1,300 MWs in Ireland. Statkraft is Europe’s largest renewable energy producer and also has operations in locations such as South America and India.
“We are very pleased to announce our first investment decision in Irish renewables,” Statkraft Ireland Head of Development Kevin O’Donovan said, with his company hoping to increase its Irish portfolio to 6,000 megawatts inside the next decade.
“Statkraft is already Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy and sees Ireland as a key market given its significant renewable energy resources.
“We are already playing a leading role in the transition to a low carbon future and believe that our experience and capabilities will be of service to Ireland in this transition over the coming years,”
Figures released last year showed Kerry was producing 14 per cent of the State’s wind-derived electrity, and communities in north and east Kerry have consistently expressed concerns over the extent of wind farm construction in the county. THERE was more than your normal evening chill in the air at Ross Castle last week when Tipperary photographer Dan Connolly snapped this ghostly figure silhouetted on the castle wall.
What makes the figure all the more eerie is that Dan swears that he saw no-one else at the castle while he was there.
Dan was down in the area for a few days taking photos of the deer rutting when he decided to stop by the castle for an evening shoot.
“I know some people will think that I created the image but that’s the thing, I didn’t create it,” he laughed, speaking to The Kerryman on Friday.
“I actually have a picture that was taken a second before this one and there’s nobody in it. If you look at the left leg, it looks an awful lot like a wooden leg to me as well,” he continued.
Dan explained that due to the camera technique that he was using, he shouldn’t have captured anybody on the shot.
“When you’re doing long exposure shots, it takes about thirty seconds from the time you press the button to the time that picture gets taken. So usually, when people walk in front of you, you don’t get them in the picture because it’s tak- en over such a length of time. This one is different though,” said Dan.
Dan admits that he was taken aback when he looked at the photo and saw the figure; he said that he has no earthly idea where the figure came from but said that it definitely lent itself to making a very striking image.