Ireland’s minister for communications, marine and natural resources, Noel Dempsey, launched the initiative, which aims to increase the output of renewable-powered electricity from 5% to 15% of total electricity consumed in Ireland by 2010.
In line with this, Mr Dempsey announced that support has been allocated to 55 new renewable-powered electricity generating plants under the Renewable Energy Feed In Tariff (REFIT) program. The combined capacity of these projects is over 600MW, with wind power accounting for 98% of all the new support.
This additional capacity will bring the available electricity production capacity harnessing renewable energy resources up from 860MW to 1,469MW, which is capable of generating power for one million homes.
This new capacity can also prevent the emission of over two million tonnes of polluting greenhouse gases annually.
