Operational wind farms
Local school wind farm visits
We are happy to facilitate school visits or classroom talks on renewable energy.
Discover the Power of Wind Energy
We welcome school groups to explore our wind farms and experience renewable Energy in action. These educational visits offer students a unique opportunity to learn how wind power works, why it matters and how it's shaping a more sustainable future - all while seeing turbines up close and meeting people who run them.
Working with local schools
We work with schools near our wind farms, organising site visits for young people to come and see a turbine up close and learn more about renewable energy, biodiversity and climate change.
Safety first
Our site managers greet classes with a quick health and safety brief at the start of the tour. Health and safety is at the core of everything we do. Visits include a demonstration on the use of harnesses which are used for climbing turbines.
Pupils from St Michael’s National School, Corcaghan, enjoyed trying on a climbing harness on their visit to Teiges Wind Farm in Co. Monaghan.
Drone inspection
Drone demonstrations are often a highlight of our school visits.
The use of drones reduces the need for our site teams to scale towering turbines and can capture high-definition video and images of the turbine blades, nacelles, and tower.
Inside the tower
Students get the opportunity to go inside the tower of a turbine to see and learn about the technology that generates clean electricity.
Looking up, all the way to the top, some of our visitors tell us they’d like to climb the turbine, but heights are not for everyone!
Visitor impressions
Principal of St Ernan’s National School, Patricia Gallagher, said that they had prepared for their visit to Meenadreen Wind Farm in Co. Donegal by learning about wind farms in the classroom: “The children are used to driving past wind farms and have shown a lot of interest in finding out more in class but nothing beats seeing a wind turbine up close and hearing about what’s involved in constructing a wind farm like this and getting all the components to site.
“It’s good for them to hear about potential careers and jobs in green energy – especially local jobs.”
Control room
Here are pupils from St Bernard’s Primary School on a visit to Long Mountain Wind Farm, Co. Antrim.
The class learnt how green energy is generated on site and fed into the electricity network to meet the needs of thousands of homes.
Don’t forget to share your homework and drawings. Our operations team always like feedback from school visits.
Global Wind Day
Global Wind Day is an international event, celebrated on 15 June every year. Its purpose is to raise awareness of wind energy and the role it plays in meeting climate action targets.
St Mary’s Primary School teacher, Fionnuala McDonnell, said pupils were excited to visit a wind farm close to their school. She added, “This has been an important outdoor learning experience for the children and ties in with our classroom focus on the natural local environment and our wind energy project, looking at the invention of windmills and development of wind turbines.
“The children were delighted to draw their own turbines and Global Wind Day poster for Energia. They have got so much out of this visit, and we even got to see a couple of hares running past, which we didn’t expect to see.”
#GetOutInTheWind
To coincide with Global Wind Day, Wind Energy Ireland run a ‘Get out in the wind’ campaign, promoting the wind farms which supply clean power to families and businesses across the island of Ireland.
This is a perfect time for everyone to enjoy the trails around our wind farm in Meenadreen, Co. Donegal, which are also open all year round.
Engineers Week
We have collaborated with Monaghan Libraries as part of Engineers Week and Science Week with special open days on our Drumlins Park Wind Farm.
Transition-year students with an interest in science and engineering from local schools visited Drumlins Park to learn about the recent construction and the day-to-day operation of the 8-turbine site.
As part of our tours, there is always the opportunity to quiz the construction and operations team on all aspects of wind energy.
Not just for kids
Monaghan Libraries helped advertise our Drumlins Park open day for Science Week.
Monaghan Science Festival organiser, Karen McCague said “We’re always keen to offer something new and were delighted to team up with Energia for this wind farm visit. Many of us are used to the sight of turbines and may even regularly drive past wind farms but few of us have got to see inside one of these towers and find out how they work”.
If you have any questions about our operational wind farms, development sites or renewable energy projects, please contact our Community Liaison Officers by email at clo@energia.ie, or phone +353 (0)87 266 9298.
