According to the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) which has gotten its hands on preliminary figures from a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), Ireland will soon move up one place in the world wind energy usage rankings to third place overtaking Spain.

Despite all the news of Ireland’s bombardment with wind and rain in 2015, it turns out it was enough to see us rise to 3rd in the world rankings of countries who used wind energy to generate electricity.

Wind energy in the Republic has always been seen as our greatest hope in trying to achieve our target of 16pc of Ireland’s energy being generated by renewables by 2020 given, well, our abundance of wind.

According to the figures from the upcoming IEA report, 24pc of Ireland’s entire electricity usage was met by indigenous wind energy, with the rough weather in December seeing a record 39pc of Ireland’s demands being met by wind energy for that month. At its peak on 19 December last year, 2,037MW was generated providing enough energy to power roughly 1.3m homes nationwide.

In 2014, Ireland was ranked in fourth place behind Spain’s 20.4pc at just 18.3pc, but still quite far behind Denmark’s 39.1pc.

The IWEA, always looking on the bright side of bad weather, said it contributed to a 9.4pc decrease in the price of wholesale electricity in 2015 compared to the previous year.

Speaking of these early findings (with the report scheduled for release sometime in the coming weeks) the CEO of the IWEA, Kenneth Matthews said:

“Irish wind and renewable energy gives us the power to power ourselves and the opportunity to cut our 85pc foreign energy import dependency which costs us €15.6m every single day.”

Siemens has won a contract from Blue Energy to supply 23 SWT-2.3-93 turbines at the 53MW Blackcraig Hill onshore wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway, in Scotland.

The contract also includes a 20-year service agreement for the project that is scheduled to be commissioned in the spring of 2017.

Blue Energy chief executive Christopher Dean commented the news :

“We are delighted to be working with Siemens again. Both the proven performance of the G2 platform and the specific characteristics of the site itself made the SWT-2.3-93 the clear choice for us.”

Siemens and Blue Energy have previously worked together on the 21MW Middlewick project on the Dengie peninsula in Essex completed in 2014.

SSE and Coillte have completed a financing deal worth €176m for the 105MW second phase of the Galway Wind Park in the west of Ireland. The total 169MW project, located south-west of Oughterard, is set to be Ireland’s largest wind farm.

The JV pair have signed off on a deal with Spanish bank BBVA, Dutch outfit Rabobank and German company Nord LB on what is understood to be the largest-ever finance package for a single wind farm in Ireland.

The debt will stretch over 16 years including the construction phase. Each bank will provide a 33% stake of the finance including a €3m VAT facility and a €3m guarantee facility.

SSE director of renewables, Paul Cooley commented the event :

“Our investment with project partner Coillte at Galway Wind Park marks the most significant commitment yet that SSE has made in renewable generation here and reflects the exceptional quality of this Galway site for wind energy generation as well as the outstanding project partnership that we enjoy with Coillte.”

Coillte land solutions director and partner for the project, Mark Foley also said:

“This deal with SSE fits with our strategy to maximise the potential of each hectare we manage in a sustainable way. It is a clear example of how we can add significant economic value to our estate and secure significant recurring future income.”

Siemens is supplying 58 SWT-3.0-101 turbines on the full 169MW project. The 64MW phase one, owned and financed by SSE, is already in construction.

Construction on phase two will begin this month with the full project expected to be completed in Q3 2017, at which point it will be commissioned and will enter commercial operation.

Dutch company Reikon Beheer is to market and deploy SheerWind’s Invelox wind power generating systems in the Netherlands.

The Invelox system collects wind in a funnel system that aims to increase its speed before delivering it to multiple turbines.

The licensing agreement is US company SheerWind’s second in Europe and fifth globally allowing its technology to further expand worldwide.

Reikon Beheer will introduce SheerWind’s technology under the name NedPower SWH to customers in the Netherlands and expects its first pilot project to be under construction in the first quarter of 2016.

SheerWind said this means energy can be produced from record low wind speeds of two metres per second in locations close to the end user.

NedPower SWH chief executive officer Huibert Uittenbogaard commented the news:

“The Netherlands has a long history with wind technology, but is behind schedule to reach the goal of 14% renewable energy by 2020. I believe that Invelox is the solution to make this impossible goal possible.”

The Irish wind industry has launched a publicity campaign to highlight its potential to replace costly fossil fuel imports.

Devised by advertising agency Rothco with the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA), the “Power To Power Ourselves” campaign says the country is in a “unique” position to decrease its “astonishing” 85% reliance on imported energy :

“Harnessing wind energy, along with other renewable resources, could end that reliance, restoring our energy independence and showing the world how to live without fossil fuels”, the campaign’s website says. But that’s not all :

“We’ve shown the world how a small country can be a leader on the global stage. And now we have the chance to do so again, but this opportunity has far reaching consequences for Ireland and the entire planet. There are few places on earth better located to harness the power of the wind. Our island’s unique position on the edge of the Atlantic might bring some inclement weather, but it surrounds us with a valuable natural resource”, also explains the website.

The campaign is support by a number of wind developers including ABO Wind, Bord na Mona, Coillte, ESB and Gaelectric with turbine suppliers Siemens, Enercon and Nordex also involved.

Vattenfall is set to invest around €5.5bn in wind energy through 2020, wind chief Gunnar Groebler told German media :

“This equals more or less the amount the company has invested in wind energy in the last 10 years”, he added.

The investment will help to double the capacity of Vattenfall’s on and offshore wind installations in the same period. Main markets will be Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany.

However, Groebler did not name specific projects.

Vattenfall has started a sales process for its German coal division and hopes to finalise the process until next summer.

Infrastructure investor Natixis and insurance outfit Swiss Life have signed an debt cooperation agreement with €300m already committed and an offshore wind project ready to roll.

The partners said the wider deal will “benefit from the expertise of Swiss Life Asset Managers and Natixis in this asset class”.

They added initial co-finance of the unnamed offshore wind project “has already been set up”, and that this partnership will “enable Natixis to further expand its infrastructure debt platform, and hence bolster its infrastructure financing capacities in Europe, serving its clients”.

Natixis is the international corporate, investment, insurance and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France. Swiss Life has been involved in insurance for 150 years.

EDF Energies Nouvelles said today its local subsidiary EDF EN Polska has commissioned the 58-MW Rzepin wind farm in Lubuskie region, north-western Poland.

The wind farm, which consists of 29 turbines each with a capacity of 2MW, is the second one to have been installed by EDF in Poland since it entered the market in 2012.

The wind park is expected to generate enough energy per year to meet the needs of more than 70,000 Polish households.

Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems said on Monday it has received an order from EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) to supply 201 MW of its machines for a project in the US.

Financial details and the name of the project have not been disclosed yet, but the Danish giant has also signed a three-year Active Output Management 5,000 service agreement for the wind farm.

Under the deal, Vestas will supply a total of 81 turbines, of which 51 will be from its V100-2.0 MW models with the rest being V117-3.3 MW turbines. The machines are expected to be commissioned in the final quarter of that year.

Delivery of the turbines is expected to start in the third quarter of 2016, prior to the wind power farm’s scheduled commissioning in the fourth quarter.

The firm has also recently won another 200MW order for a US wind project in Oklahoma, details for which have also not been disclosed.

So far this year, the Danish company has announced 7,282 MW of orders, it noted.

Dong Energy has signed an agreement for lease with the Isle of Man government to carry out preliminary investigations for an up to 700MW offshore wind farm in Manx waters off the north east coast of the island.

The agreement gives Dong the right to investigate an area approximately six to 12 miles off the east coast of the island to determine its offshore wind suitability.

Dong said the investigation will take several years to complete, after which, if conditions are suitable, there will be an option to execute a lease with the Isle of Man government for the seabed over the lifetime of the wind farm.

Subject to the findings of the investigations, construction activities would likely take place post-2020.

The creation of an offshore energy hub is one of its core long-term strategies for economic growth of the island. Developments in renewable energy could open up an opportunity for the Isle of Man to position itself as a hub to coordinate offshore projects and enhance connections between countries in the Irish Sea region.

There may also be scope to secure future renewable electricity supplies for domestic use in the Isle of Man, as well as exporting power to the UK.