Enough power for 2billion cups of tea from wind farm

Hunter’s Hill Wind Farm Ltd have applied for a generation licence under the Electricity (NI) Order 1992 to construct the nine turbine farm that will create 2.5MW of electrical power per windmill once completed.

It is not far from two other wind farm sites at Curryfree and Slieve Kirk.

The Sentinel has obtained pictures (see above) of the view the residents of Donemana might have once the farm is finished.

Gary Connolly of ESB Wind Development told the paper the farm will eventually plug into a new sub-station at Killymallaght which will allow it power homes between Londonderry and Strabane and beyond.

“There is a new sub-station at Killymallaght that will allow us to connect into the grid when it is generating,” said Mr Connolly.

The sub-station is already set to start receiving wind-generated power this summer. Hunter’s Hill should be ready to start feeding into it by summer 2012 if it gets the green light.

“A lot of the wind turbines are in the west of the province,” said Mr Connolly. “It’ll supply homes in between Derry and Strabane and then any surplus can be used elsewhere.”

According to wind energy lobby group Renewable Energy UK a modern 2.5MW turbine at a reasonable site will generate 6.5 million units of electricity each year, enough to meet the annual needs of over 1,400 households, make 230 million cups of tea or run a computer for 2,250 years.

Thus the 22.5MW farm near Cullion should be able to power a computer for 20,000 years.

Every unit of electricity from a wind turbine displaces one from conventional power stations: in January 2009, wind turbines in the UK had the capacity to prevent the emission of 3,682,563 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.

The generation licence for the Hunter’s Hill farm will take effect from the final quarter of 2011.

The site for the nine turbine farm is on the south-western flank of Slieve Kirk mountain and west of the B48 Newbuildings - Donemana road. It is approximately four kilometres north of Donemana.

The Londonderry-Tyrone county boundary runs through the site which lies in the townland of Carrickatane.

Full planning permission was granted on March 19, 2009, whilst a grid connection application offer was received in June 2010 and accepted.