• March 18, 2024

Introducing the Galway Wind Park Project

While the Galway Wind Park, co-owned by SSE Renewables and Greencoat Renewables, in Connemara’s Cloosh Valley, is Ireland’s largest and best performing onshore wind farm (174MW), generating more green energy than any other wind generation site on the island, it is also participating in the EU Life Multi-Peat project to restore more than 200 hectares of previously degraded peatland adjacent to the windmills. This very much adds to the green credentials of the Wind Park. 

Ireland is now the only Member State with a significant representation of Atlantic blanket bog habitat (H7130); improving its conservation status is a particularly crucial objective for the EU. Atlantic blanket bog habitat once covered over 773kha. After centuries of degradation due to draining cutting and more recently, afforestation and overgrazing, this habitat has been depleted by over 80%.  

The Connemara Bog Complex consists of over 49kha of blanket bog in various conservation status. Multi-Peat is working with the Wind Park and other stakeholders to restore lands within and adjacent to an existing Natura 2000 site. The project is also measuring greenhouse gas emissions and will calculate reductions for the restored peatlands and examine their interaction with the greenhouse gas impacts of the wind farm. The project is interacting with local landowners and community groups willing to work to restore degraded blanket bog habitat to scale up restoration work in the area. The Galway Wind Park site consists of 2 parcels of degraded blanket bog of 155ha and 62ha. The works being carried out will improve the habitat used by the Greenland white-fronted goose, a nationally important wintering area.  

The project partners are working with the existing LIFE IP-PAF Wild Atlantic Nature project to develop synergies with farmers outside the Galway Wind Park in the Natura 2000 protected area. Blanket bog extent and depth is not well mapped; the team is working to provide a habitat mapping and management document and develop long-term blanket bog management policies to retain conditions suitable for blanket bog formation. Multi-Peat will also analyse the potential to increase Natura 2000 designation and analyse potential synergies between co-located blanket bog and wind turbines while making policy recommendations for all aspects of this work. 

👉 Find out more about the Galway Windpark project here. 

🗺️ The Galway University is hosting a Mapathon 6th of April. Find out more here. 

Galway Windpark Team on the project site (Photo by Multi Peat)