Kerry generates three times the wind power per head than Co Cork new figures show

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

New figures show Kerry has three times the wind power generation per capita than the county with highest total output, Co Cork.

While Kerry was second to Cork in terms of wind power generation in 2024, having a capacity of 501 megawatts to Cork’s 583, Kerry has three times the capacity per head of population.

Kerry has over 320 watts of output per capita, with Cork having just under 100 watts per capita.

Kerry also led significantly in power generation per square kilometre, outputting over 10.4 kilowatts, leading second placed Co Offaly by over 1.5 kilowatts.

In terms of square kilometres, Cork was just over three-quarters of Kerry’s output, generating over 7.7 kilowatts per square kilometre.

This also discounts wind farms on the Kerry-Limerick border which output 23 megawatts.

While some counties such as West Meath and Kildare are yet to generate any wind power, Co Dublin had the lowest density of wind farm power at only 0.09 kilowatts per square kilometre.

Commenting on the figures, Kerry councillor Michael Foley said: “Our area has been inundated with them and at the start there was huge controversy with them.

“We have now done our fair share in Kerry and it’s about time other counties caught up to us.”

After re-zoning land as part of the Kerry County Development plan, wind farms can only be built in the east of north Kerry.

However, Cllr Foley is now concerned with solar farms and the lack of national guidelines around their construction.

An ESB solar farm at Drombeg, north of Listowel, is set to be operational next year, while potential farms at Ballylongford, Lenamore and a giant farm between Tarbet and Glin are all in planning stages.

“In our own county development plan it states that solar farms can only be built on marginal land. The problem there is we have connection to the grid in north Kerry and a lot of marginal land. So are we going to be saturated with wind farms and solar farms?” said Cllr Foley.

“What we need is national guidelines for solar farms. The government will have to bring in national guidelines and that will benefit the land owner, the developer and the person who is living in the vicinity of the farm.”