A consignment of massive wind turbine blades which arrived in the city’s port will this week be transported in the dark of night across Quincentenary Bridge and onwards to their eventual site in Connemara.
Each blade is 72m in length and weights over 26 tonnes and will be the first of many consignments through the port to service the burgeoning wind energy industry in the west.
Port of Galway CEO Conor O’Dowd, told The Advertiser that he is delighted that Galway has been chosen as the deployment Port for the Arderroo project in Connemara and is hopeful that the development of the Port will further facilitate its suitability for servicing the offshore wind energy
“Since the Port’s first windfarm project in 2014, we have been the deployment Port for 14% of onshore wind deployment in Ireland and, once the Arederroo project is completed, our Port will have been involved in the deployment in 450MW of installed onshore wind capacity.
“The Port of Galway has and will play a vital role in the transition to renewable energy. With an experienced team in place, led by Captain Bob Ellis, and having completed extensive works at the Port Estate to better cater for wind turbine cargoes, the Port is ideally placed to handle further onshore wind projects in the future and, over time, play an important role in the deployment and service of offshore wind energy off our Atlantic Coast,” he said.
Arderroo Wind Farm, located in Connemara, is now adding 101MW of installed capacity with an order for 22 turbines from the German Nordex Acciona Group. The turbines are from the Delta4000 series, with 15 N149/4.x and 7 N149/5.x turbines ordered and arriving for deployment through the Port of Galway in the second half of this year.
