Testing is continuing off the east coast for a £450 million wind farm involving 200 wind machines which would be capable of supplying 500,000 homes with "green" electricity.
The development by eirtricity - the company set up by former Bord Na Mona boss Eddie O'Connor to exploit natural resources - was last week the subject of an information day, in Co Wexford, at which details of extensive information gathered during the Environmental Impact Assessment were presented. The information day was opened by Mr Hugh Byrne, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Marine and Natural Resources.
In order to calculate the potential energy output from the site, a wind tower was established on the Arklow bank to measure windspeed. The tower is about five metres above water and is sunk on a pile 15 metres into the Arklow Bank. Its anometer collects data about wind speed which is downloaded onto a microchip and readings will be compared to long term readings from weather stations, allowing long-run average figures to be estimated.
The flora and fauna of the bank has been studied and all fish species, birds, seaweeds and invertebrates are all being catalogued.
According to eirtricity there will be no noise coming from the wind park which will be visible from the land as an "elegant" structure on the horizon. At the information day in the Bayview Hotel Courtown, photomontages were presented to show the extent and scale of the visibility.
It is eirtricity's intention to build a 500 MW wind park and the company has already received an exploration licence from the Department of Marine and Natural Resources. This gives it exclusive right to conduct a feasibility study on the bank.
Obviously a key question is whether it is possible to build large wind turbines in this location, but according to eirtricity, tests have already revealed the seabed conditions are suitable.
Sonar, used to scan the seabed, was angled to look sideways at the Arklow bank, while the undersea contours were plotted and the exact shape of the bank was discovered. It falls away steeply on the eastern side while there is a much shallower falling away on the western or shore side.
The company claims more than 700 small and medium business are customers, accounting for contracts worth in excess of £3.1 million. Last year Eirtricity received approval for its third wind farm at Slieve Rushen from planners in Co Cavan.
