The largest Nordex wind farm in Ireland to date is to be installed as of August 2012. The project is called “Garracummer” located in county Tipperary and is to go on grid with 17 N90/2500 machines. The customer is the state-owned utility Bord Gais Energy. Bord Gais have engaged Nordex to build the foundations, supply the turbines and commission them, as well as to provide Premium Service for a period of 15 years.
“Garracummer” at 42.5 megawatts is the third and largest Nordex wind farm that Bord Gais will have in its portfolio. The other two projects are “Knockawarriga” with 22.5 megawatts and “Kilgarvan Extension” with 32.5 megawatts. Nordex built these wind farms for the project developer SWS Energy, which was acquired by Bord Gais in 2009. The annual energy yield of “Garracummer” amounts to more than 150 gigawatt hours.
The Irish market has been a good one for Nordex. The turbine manufacturer installed the first turbine there in 2002. In 2010 the company founded an Irish subsidiary based in Swords near Dublin. Today there are more than 60 Nordex turbines in operation in Ireland with a capacity of more than 150 megawatts.
Bord Gais Energy is an important customer for Nordex in Ireland. The company operates wind farms with a total output of more than 200 megawatts. A three year framework agreement from October 2011 offers Nordex the chance to tender for a future 200 megawatts of Bord Gais wind farm projects between now and 2014. “With `Garracummer`, we hope to be able to intensify our partnership into the future", says Lars Bondo Krogsgaard, Chief Customer Officer of Nordex SE.