Assessment of the wind energy potential at Bausch + Lomb Waterford

In recent years, renewable energy has come to prominence due to worldwide concern over greenhouse gases, energy supply issues and increasing economic volatility, and this, coupled with the ever-increasing price of fossil fuels, has led to an increased emphasis being placed on alternative sources of energy. These energy issues are attributable to a number of factors, typically, dependence on fossil fuel reserves, increase in energy demand and the current economic climate. As a result of the factors mentioned above, a greater reliance has been placed on alternative energy sources. Wind is an abundant potential source of energy in Ireland. Wind is, however, extremely variable in nature, as is also, albeit to a lesser extent, the national demand for electrical energy. Harnessing and predicting the electrical power from wind is the challenge, especially as Ireland’s electrical power from wind is going to significantly (more than 70-fold by 2050, according to one roadmap) increase over the next few years. Allied to the abundant nature of wind resources in Ireland and the increasing levels of national grid penetration that wind energy is currently experiencing, electricity auto production, where the wind generated electricity is for local, private use, is becoming ever more prevalent. Furthermore, electricity auto production will form a key component in the distributed generation of future smart electrical grids and is even now an attractive option for users with large energy demands, primarily to reduce their energy costs with a small generation surplus to on-site demand being exported to the grid