When it comes to wind energy, the Irish know their stuff By Ed
Forry, October 2, 2012 By Judy Enright Special to the BIR The
Irish are a wind-loving lot – and why not when they are so often
buffeted by the gales that swirl around the greenest island in
the Atlantic? While some here complain that wind turbines block
their vistas, the Irish have long embraced the concept of
harnessing the wind’s energy and all its resulting benefits and
you can see turbines atop many hills in the country. At last
count, there were 31 on-shore wind energy projects operating in
the Republic with the Airtricity Wind Farm, at Kingsmountain,
Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, producing the most energy – enough to
power more than 15,000 homes, they claim. But wind turbines are
modern technology; before they came on the scene, windmill
blades (or sails) captured the gusts and transmitted that energy
down to the millstones to grind grain. So making use of the
prevailing breeze is nothing new for Ireland. Historians say the
first windmills were bu