World-leading wind energy company celebrates first anniversary in Bangor Erris

RWE, a world leader in renewable power generation, has celebrated the first anniversary of the innovative Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) test facility in Bangor Erris.

The company has also announced that it will be continuing its partnership with Kitepower in Bangor Erris into 2025.

With its vast space and excellent wind conditions, the RWE test site in the north Mayo area is perfect for scaling up Kitepower’s Falcon system, which can generate up to 100 kilowatts of electricity. 

The extension for the site will allow Kitepower to finalise testing of its kite system and advance research on larger-scale airborne wind energy solutions.

Johannes Peschel, CEO of Kitepower said flights flights have increased to five per week on average with flight times increasing to over 35 hours and the longest flight recorded of five and three quarter hours.

The company’s ‘Falcon’ test kite has a capacity of up to 100 kilowatts (kW), up from our smaller Hawk system with a capacity of 30 kW.

Kitepower has established a permanent crew on-site to ensure continuous research and development efforts and plans to further expand its testing team in Ireland.

It has conducted over 90 flights and 100 hours of test time in Bangor-Erris to date. 

RWE has renewable energy projects in different stages of development; including two offshore wind farms, ten onshore wind farms and a further battery storage facility. RWE’s objective is to be a long-term energy partner for Ireland during the country’s transition to carbon neutrality.