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The wind energy sector has expressed concern
that just 2.3% of wind installations across Europe are in
this country - despite our natural climatic advantages.
The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA)
said that we are failing to capitalise on our "outstanding
wind resource".
According to the latest European Wind Energy
Association (EWEA)
figures, Ireland installed 233MW of wind last year - just
1MW more than in 2008 - and accounted for just 2.3% of total
EU installations in 2009.
The league
table was topped by Spain, with 2,459MW (24% of total
EU installations) installed. Germany ranked second with 1,917MW
(19%), Italy third with 1,114MW (11%), France fourth with
1,088MW (11%) and Britain fifth with 1,077MW (10%).
By the end of last year, Ireland had installed
a total of 1,260MW of wind power - just 4.8% of that installed
by Germany and 6% of Spain.
IWEA chief executive Dr Michael Walsh said that
Ireland needs to accelerate turbine installations year-on-year
if wind energy potential is to be fulfilled. "We have one
of the strongest wind energy resources in Europe and that
wind energy has enormous economic potential for Ireland,"
he said.
"While Spain and Germany - the market leaders
- have far greater land mass than we do, Denmark has 61% of
Ireland’s land mass and yet we have just 36.3% of their wind
capacity installed. This shows how slow we are on capitalising
on this unique renewable energy opportunity."
Download EWEA full analysis - Click
Here
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