Ireland’s largest wind farm has officially started commercial operations, developers SSE and Coillte have announced.
The 169 MW Galway Wind Park comprises 58 Siemens Gamesa 3 MW wind turbines and cost over €280 million to develop. Located south-west of Oughterard, the wind farm will produce over 600 GWh of energy a year.
The Galway wind farm brings SSE’s operational portfolio of onshore wind farms in Ireland to 28 with a combined generation capacity of 768 MW, making the company the largest generator and provider of renewable energy in the all-island Single Electricity Market.
Galway Wind Park is one of four wind farms that Coillte, along with its partners, has invested €400 million in over the last 18 months and brings Coillte’s operational wind portfolio to over 200 MW.
Galway was built in two phases over three years, with main works starting in December 2014.
The 64 MW phase 1 of Galway Wind Park is owned and was fully financed by SSE at an investment cost of around €105 million. Phase 2 (105 MW) is a 50/50 joint venture between SSE and Coillte and was funded with project finance totalling €176 million.
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