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In more than two decades since the first wind farm project was realised in 1992 at Bellacorrick, County Mayo, wind energy’s contribution to Ireland’s electricity supply has steadily risen to the point where it had installed 1.7GW of capacity by the end of 2012.
With the country now tasked with achieving its national targets for renewable energy by 2020, which calls for 40 percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources, an estimated 5,500 to 6,000MW of wind generation is required.