Over 40 primary school children from two schools in Co Clare celebrated Global Wind Day at Booltiagh Wind Farm, Co Clare this week.
Organised by Ørsted, a global leader in renewable energy, children from Kilmihil National School and Scoil Mhichíl, Cahermurphy were brought on a tour of the wind farm that generates enough energy to power 5,500 homes before taking part in an interactive workshop run by Learn Renewables. Creating their own wind turbine models, the students learned about wind energy and how wind can power our everyday needs sustainably.
Global Wind Day is marked worldwide annually on 15 June where a series of events are organised to raise awareness of wind energy, its power and the possibilities it holds to change our world.
Speaking about the occasion, TJ Hunter, Senior Director, Onshore IRL & UK, Ørsted, said “As a world leading renewable energy company, we were delighted to celebrate Global Wind Day with so many enthusiastic and curious young minds. We hope that the interactive nature of the workshop and tour of the wind farm sparks curiosity about how wind is turned into the clean renewable electricity we need to meet our rapidly changing energy demands.”
“We are grateful to the communities in which we work and are proud of projects such as Booltiagh which play a crucial role in helping Ireland meet the national climate target of 80% renewable electricity by 2030. Ørsted has a vision of a world powered by green energy and a global 2030 target of 50GW of renewables, 17.5GW of which is onshore technologies such as wind and solar,” he continued.
Ørsted operates 19 wind farms across the island of Ireland. During the first five months of 2022, Irish wind farms provided 37pc of the country’s electricity, according to Wind Energy Ireland.