Firm led by ex-Goodman associate plans €600m wind farm

Glen Dimplex founder Martin Naughton and a former associate of beef baron Larry Goodman are backing a €600 million offshore electricity wind farm.

Oriel Windfarm Ltd is planning to build a facility 22km off the Louth coast with the capacity to generate 330 megawatts of electricity, making it the biggest such project of its kind in the country.

Oriel's managing director is Brian Britton, a well-known businessman and one-time deputy chief executive of Goodman International, the beef processor owned by Larry Goodman.

Mr Britton is a shareholder, as is Mr Naughton, who owns Glen Dimplex, the electrical goods manufacturer which has sales of more than €2 billion a year.

Other shareholders include Michael McBennett, a former Central Bank director and current member of the South Dublin Chamber of Commerce executive. He is an investor in a number of renewable energy projects.

Shareholder brothers Chris and Dan Hannevig, both of whom are engineers, have also been involved in developing renewable energy projects, including offshore wind.

Oriel has already invested €7 million in bringing the project to development stage. Mr Britton said yesterday that total construction costs would come to €623 million.

It is intended to raise that cash through a combination of debt and equity, Mr Britton explained.

He also said that a number of the "big players" in the energy sector had approached the company seeking to get involved in the project, but Oriel had decided not to bring in any of them.

"Our view is that we're an Irish company and that's the way we want to stay for the time being," he said.

The wind farm itself will consist of 55 turbines with the capacity to generate up to six megawatts of electricity each.

It will be built in five phases and is due to begin supplying electricity to the national grid within two years of beginning construction.

The immediate next phase of the project will be getting a foreshore lease that will allow the company to build its turbines.

Oriel has applied to State agency Eirgrid for a connection to the national grid.