SSE Renewables offers digital technology prize fund to schools to celebrate renaming of Setanta Wind Park

Date for art competition entries extended to Friday, 17 February

Calling all primary school teachers, principals and parents’ committees!

A digital technology prize fund of €6,000 has been made available to schools in Louth, Meath and North Dublin by leading renewable energy developer SSE Renewables in celebration of the renaming of its Setanta Wind Park offshore project.

The company which is developing Setanta Wind Park off the north-east coast has extended the deadline for entries from local schools to an art competition depicting Setanta, who famously became known as Cú Chulainn in Irish folklore.

Entries will now be accepted up until Friday, 17 February.

The artworks can be created through any medium and must feature the legend Setanta.

Winners will be chosen from three categories as follows:

• Junior Infants and Senior Infants
• First, Second and Third Class
• Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Class

SSE Renewables recently announced that the project formerly known as Braymore Wind Park was renamed as Setanta Wind Park.

This follows a public consultation with local communities in Louth, Meath and North Dublin last year. The new name better reflects the region in which the project is situated, while highlighting local folklore and history.

The feedback, that was received during the public consultation for the proposed wind park, found that the existing name was not identifiable with the wider communities that the wind park covered.

The name Setanta was the given name of one of the great champions of the ancient Irish sagas, Cú Chulainn who dominates as a giant of Irish mythology including in the series of epic tales collectively known as The Ulster Cycle. Setanta was the name used until he was bestowed with the warrior badge-of-honour title Cú Chulainn. The battles, skirmishes and scrapes in the closing sections of the Táin, as the poem/saga is usually more briefly referred to, took place in the present-day counties of Meath and Louth. In fact, most of the action took place between present-day Drogheda and Dundalk, overlooking the section of sea in which Setanta Wind Park will be situated.

The proposed Setanta Wind Park site is situated off the northeast coast of Ireland in the Irish Sea between Dunany Point in County Louth at its most northern point and Braymore Point in County Dublin and secured a foreshore licence to facilitate surveys of the seabed to enhance understanding of the prevailing conditions at the site. Once operational, Setanta Wind Park will be capable of generating up to 1GW of renewable energy, powering over 1 million homes and offsetting up to 1 billion kgs of carbon annually.

"We are delighted to make this €6,000 digital technology prize fund available to local schools in the area where we plan to develop Setanta Wind Park. Feedback to date in relation to the project rebrand has been extremely positive and supporting local schools is a great way to acknowledge the role that our community stakeholders played in ensuring that our project name was in keeping with the locality in which the wind park will eventually be operational."

Martin Sweeney Lead Project Manager, Setanta Wind Park

Entries can be submitted as jpeg attachments via email to [email protected] by 5pm on Friday, 17 February.

About SSE Renewables:

SSE Renewables is the UK and Ireland’s leading renewable energy developer, owner and operator with plans to expand in selected international markets to deliver the green energy the world needs. Its strategy is to lead the transition to a net zero future through the world-class development, construction and operation of renewable power assets and is building more offshore wind energy than any other company in the world.

SSE Renewables is part of SSE plc, the UK-listed integrated energy group which is investing £12.5bn over five years, or £7m a day, to deliver a Net Zero Acceleration Programme to address climate change head on. This includes plans by SSE Renewables to double its installed renewable energy capacity to 8GW by 2026 and ambitious targets to treble capacity to over 13GW by 2031, increasing output fivefold to over 50TWh annually – enough to be able to power around 20 million homes each year.