Earlier this year SSE Renewables, Northern Ireland’s leading renewables developer and generator, said the country had an opportunity within its grasp to meet the challenge of harnessing and distributing renewable energy. Six months on, Paul Cooley, General Manager of SSE Renewables, says there are signs that we are now collectively rising to that challenge and realising the job creation opportunities that wind can bring.
On June 15, SSE Renewables officially opened Northern Ireland’s newest wind farm at Slieve Kirk in County Derry / Londonderry.
Built at a cost of £50 million, the project commenced construction in July 2010. Constructed over a 15 month period, Slieve Kirk is unique in being the first ever energy project in Northern Ireland to utilise a grid connection constructed by an energy utility other than Northern Ireland Electricity, marking a significant first for SSE in this market and a significant first for the industry.
Slieve Kirk has set new standards of excellence within SSE in terms of leadership, behavioural safety culture and project delivery. Now fully operational, Slieve Kirk Wind Farm exported its first energy in October 2011. With an installed capacity of 27.6MW, the SSE site generates enough green electricity to power 27,000 homes. At the same, the clean generation at Slieve Kirk displaces around 32,000 tonnes of harmful CO2 emissions every year.
With the opening of the Slieve Kirk Wind Farm, SSE has further cemented its position as the leading renewable energy generator in Northern Ireland.
Today, the Top 40 FTSE listed and Perth, Scotland, based company has an installed capacity of almost 80MW in operation, powering around 65,000 Northern Ireland homes. SSE is also the largest single wind energy generator on the island with 500MW in operation in the Single Electricity Market.
SSE has invested over £300 million to date into renewables in Northern Ireland and will invest an additional £180 million into new renewables developments up to 2016, bringing total investment to almost half a billion pounds.
In Northern Ireland SSE has already invested over £300 million into renewables developments, around £140 million of which has been invested since SSE acquired Airtricity in 2008. The company further plans to invest an additional £180 million into new renewables developments up to 2016, bringing its total investment into the future of Northern Irish energy to almost half a billion pounds.
“The environmental benefits of renewable energy are perhaps the most obvious to consumers, but there is an important economic payback to consumers and to the economy as well,” Paul Cooley comments. “We know that the energy generated at Slieve Kirk makes a demonstrable contribution towards achieving the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s renewable electricity targets of 40% generation by 2020. What we also need to focus on is the contribution that wind energy makes to an overall reduction in consumer energy pricing as well as the very real and sustained contribution that renewables make to the country’s economy, whether through direct and indirect employment as well as net financial contributions to local communities, services and economies.
“By harnessing and distributing renewable energy we are not only meeting the challenge of climate change but we are poised to grasp the economic opportunity that investment in green energy presents for Northern Ireland. As well as its significant environmental credentials, wind energy brings welcome economic benefits through local authority rates, land rental, community funds, local civil infrastructure upgrades and increased demand on a variety of local businesses. Very shortly we will launch our new Slieve Kirk Community Fund which will build on our leadership position as Northern Ireland’s leading funder of local communities through wind farm development.”
The development of the renewable energy sector in Northern Ireland and across the UK is making a real economic impact in terms of job creation. Last year, over 8,500 jobs were supported throughout the UK in the renewable sector, including almost 1,000 in Northern Ireland. For instance, the Irish Wind Energy Association estimates that for each MW of energy produced by wind, 1.5 full time jobs are sustained.
These figures are borne out by SSE’s Paul Cooley. “At Slieve Kirk we recorded a total of over 110,000 working hours, equivalent to the creation of 42.6 full-time construction jobs associated with the project over its 15 month lifetime. At its construction peak, more than 150 people were employed on site at Slieve Kirk, drawn from over 20 locally-based suppliers in the engineering, construction and service sectors involved.”
SSE further expects that over 150 additional full-time construction roles will be created in Northern Ireland in the coming two years through the development of its pipeline of around 70MW of upcoming renewable energy projects.
Currently SSE is constructing its 18 MW Glenconway Wind Farm, located near to Slieve Kirk. As a result of this project the company estimates that a £7 million investment will be made into the local Derry/Londonderry community.
However, according to Paul Cooley, the real opportunity to be grasped for Northern Ireland will be the employment that wind energy can bring. With over 400MW of installed onshore wind capacity already in operation and a significant number of projects awaiting construction, Northern Ireland has a thriving wind energy industry. As a result, SSE estimates that a per annum full-time equivalent of 170 jobs will be created in the delivery of the 115MW required annually to meet our target of 1450MW of renewable generation to deliver Northern Ireland’s 40% renewable electricity target by 2020. SSE will play a major role in delivering that target.
“This is a milestone year for SSE in Northern Ireland. In addition to opening the country’s newest wind farm, SSE has announced that its energy supply brand Airtricity, which broke through the 100,000 electricity customer mark earlier this year, has acquired Phoenix Supply, Northern Ireland’s leading natural gas provider.
“As a result SSE is not only Northern Ireland’s largest wind energy generator, but it has now secured its position as the second largest energy supplier in the country.
“These developments, alongside the opening of Slieve Kirk Wind Farm and our continued investment in renewables in the country, are part of our continued commitment to serving customers, employing people and providing the energy people in Northern Ireland need in a reliable and sustainable way.”
