The ESB will probably encounter local opposition when it applies for planning permission to build a £15 million wind farm on the grounds of the Moneypoint generating station in Co Clare later this month.
The application to install up to 10 100-metre wind turbines would add 20 megawatts of electricity to Moneypoint's 900 MW capacity, and serve 15,000 households in the county. ESB International, the international arm of the ESB, is developing the project. The company is also involved with a consortium to build a 250 MW wind farm on the Kish Bank, off the Co Dublin coast.
"It is certainly the first time in Ireland that an existing industrial site is being used for the generation of wind energy," the station manager, Mr Paul Mulvaney, said.
However, some locals are opposed to the project and will scrutinise the Environmental Impact Statement being submitted with the planning application before making a formal objection.
Wind farm applications have had a mixed history in Clare. The county council has rejected five applications in recent years. Only one rejection was overturned, last month, by An Bord Pleanala.
The ESB is counting on the fact the 447-acre site was industrially zoned to accommodate the State's only coal-fired station with its two 200-metrehigh chimneys.
Local county councillor Mr Tom Prendeville is opposed to the project. "The topography of Clare is very flat. It is not appropriate to it," he said.
It would bring no jobs to the area, he added. "There is no altruistic motive on the part of wind farm companies to clean up the atmosphere. All of these wind farm development applications are made in the absence of a landscape policy or a proper energy conservation programme.
"The thinking of local people there is that they have given enough to the ESB over the past 15 years. They feel it is unfair they are being subjected to another 20 years of visually obtrusive monstrosities on the skyline."
But according to Brady Shipman Martin, landscape and visual appraisal consultants, commissioned by the developers, the development would present itself as "a positive experience" for visitors travelling on the coast road. It would form "a coherent composition within the landscape particularly as viewed from the west where the scale of both the turbines and the existing station will appear most consistent".
The project has been discussed with local people and councillors as part of a consultation process. Mr Mulvaney said the reaction had been favourable.
Residents were told the wind turbines would be quiet and efficient and would be expected to produce double the energy of their equivalents in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, who are world leaders in wind technology.
They would generate power about 80 per cent of the time, whenever the wind was at or above Force 2, the equivalent of a light breeze. They would generate full power whenever the wind was at or above Force 5 and would automatically swivel to face into the wind at all times.
"The biggest selling points are that it is already an industrial site, it is a huge wind resource and there will be no further overhead cables," Mr Mul vaney said.
The turbines would be divided between the 323 acres where the station is located and an adjacent 124-acre site where the ash from Moneypoint's furnaces is stored. During construction, there would be an input into the local economy. "It sounds a bit flippant, but these things become a tourist attraction," he added.
On a best-case scenario, the planning permission could be obtained by June, the erection of the turbines could begin by next March and they could be operational by May 2002, fitting in with the Government's aim to produce 12 per cent of the State's electricity from renewable energy by 2005.
Meanwhile, Clare County Council has to decide on an application by an Ennis-based individual, Mr Anthony McNamara, to build three 55metre wind turbines on the Loop Head peninsula, six miles from Kilkee. A number of residents have objected to the project.
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Readers who want to contact Eibhir Mulqueen can leave messages for him by phoning 01-6707711, ext 6544. emulqueen@irish-times.ie