Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Kerry Wind Farm

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Wind Farm
at
Kilgarvan


It was a clear but windy and cool day that I visited the Everwind Wind Farm, at The Coom, Kilgarvan. Co. Kerry. The place is breathtaking in every sense of the word. It is beautiful and barren, and the wind takes the breath from your body!!


The place is stunningly beautiful

These Massive Turbine are so Elegant


This wind farm has 15 turbines called the “Vestas V90” they are 3 Mega Watt output each so the farm is capable of giving a total of 45 Mega Watts. The turbines are sleek and IMHO elegant and beautiful. The elegance and sleekness of lines belie the sheer size of these monsters.

I was really glad I had my camera to photograph these beauties. I was surprised at how little noise these massive machines actually made. Apart from the swish of the massive blades, the only other sound was the background sound of the gear box, and the occasional sound of the turbines turning into the shifting wind.


The base of the tower give one a perspective on the size

The site is located high on the Coolea mountain road near the Cork-Kerry border, about 7km from Kilgarvan village and 8km off the N22 main Cork to Killarney road. It is about a mile from Ireland’s highest pub. It is a lovely drive on a fine day but a road not for the nervous driver.
The Everwind contract with the ESB National Grid is for 42.5MW of capacity. The connection to the site is by 110 kilo Volt grid.





The Vestas V90 turbine is one of the biggest available. This turbine has a blade diameter of 45m and stands on a 75m tubular steel tower. These were originally designed as an offshore turbine.

This is clean and beautiful energy. Give me this anyday compared to coal fired generators or nuclear power stations



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