Leading renewable energy consultancy and service provider, Natural Power, has successfully supported the completion of Taghart Wind Farm and Millvale Solar Farm - the first RESS-1 wind and solar projects respectively, to be energised in Ireland.

Natural Power acted as owner's engineer on behalf of Statkraft Ireland at the seven-turbine, 23MW, Taghart Wind Farm in County Cavan. The site has the capacity to power c.18,000 homes with clean, green, renewable energy and also incorporates a significant community benefit fund of around €150,000 for the duration of the scheme.

Natural Power also acted as owner's engineer at first large-scale ground mounted solar farm to supply electricity to the Irish grid. Millvale Solar Farm near Ashford in County Wicklow incorporates 33,600 solar modules covering 25 hectares of land. The Neoen site was opened by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, earlier this year.

Seán Manley, Country Director for Natural Power Ireland, said: "We're proud to be involved in supporting Statkraft and Neoen achieve these two country firsts for Ireland. It's a really positive development for our industry, and shows the diversification of our services in line with the Climate Action Plan (CAP), as well as our growing contribution to Ireland delivering 80% renewable electricity by 2030."

To date, Ireland has advised on more than 14GW of renewable energy projects, including 1.9 GW of solar PV projects.

With solar power being the largest renewable energy sector in the world, Natural Power has built a specialist team of solar energy experts that can look at the potential and development of new solar sites and deliver solar projects from start to finish. Find out more here www.naturalpower.com/uk/expertise/sector/solar

It also supports onshore wind projects across the globe and works with clients to support all stages from evaluating site feasibility through construction and long-term asset management. Find out more here www.naturalpower.com/uk/expertise/sector/onshore-wind