Project and site

Cronalaght wind farm is situated on the south-western face of Cronalaght hill in the county of Donegal, Ireland. The hill is about 400 m high and is the western lobe of a series of hills in North-western Donegal. The Atlantic ocean is not far away, only about 7 km, and the hill is completely open to the sea. The vegetation is very sparse as the hills are covered with blanket peat and trees are non-existent on the hill.

Figure 2: The Cronalaght site in North-Western Ireland.

On this hill one of the first major wind farms in Ireland was erected by Gineadóiri Gaoithe Teoranta in 1997. From the beginning it consisted of 5 Vestas V39 turbines in a special upgraded 600 kW edition. The wind conditions on this site are so exceptional that an oversize generator is feasible. In 1999 3 Vestas V47 turbines were added to the farm to the current total of 8 wind turbines. The Vestas V47 turbines have a nominal effect of 660 kW.

Prior to the erection of the first leg of the wind farm a meteorological mast was erected below the hill and for approx. 2 years the wind conditions were logged in 10 and 30 meters elevation. These data are the topic of this Cronalaght Project.

66 km to the north-east is the Malin Head meteorological station. The environment at this place is similar to the one in Cronalaght. A wind statistic for this place is included in the European Wind Atlas.

Figure 3: Map of the site.

 

  

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