£20m wind farm to be opened in Newtownabbey by Gaelectric

A £20m wind farm in County Antrim will be officially opened today.

The Irish renewable energy group, Gaelectric, will open the facility at Carn Hill in Newtownabbey.

Carn Hill is the first fully operational wind farm in Gaelectric’s Northern Ireland portfolio.

The 13.8 megawatt (MW) wind farm, which consists of six wind turbines, will generate enough power to meetthe electricity demand of nearly 8,000 homes a year.

In 2010, Gaelectric announced it had received planning approval for a 15 MW farm at Inishative near Pomeroy, in County Tyrone.

The Planning Service said it had received 11 letters of objections to the Tyrone wind farm.