The State's largest single producer of greenhouse gases, the coal-burning electricity generating station at Moneypoint, Co Clare, is to become the site of a major wind farm following the granting of planning permission by the local authority for the €20 million project.
It will involve the construction of nine wind turbines, measuring 68 metres, each with 40-metre blades. Local residents are considering an appeal to An Bord Pleanála.
The 447-acre site on the banks of the Shannon estuary is currently dominated by two 223-metre chimneys and produces a quarter of the State's 4,500Mw electricity capacity. The addition of the turbines will add about 22.5Mw to the station's capacity.
Depending on further appeals, the ESB hopes construction will begin later this year and the station would be commissioned next year. The windfarm has permission to operate for 20 years.
A local resident, Mr Peter Cunningham, said the local parish of Killimer was against the development because of the proximity of the turbines to dwellings and the distraction they would cause by their movement and "shadow flicker". "We are not against the idea of windfarms, but not behind someone's door," he said.
The Economic and Social Research Institute concluded in a 1998 report that switching Moneypoint from coal to gas would yield the largest emission reduction in carbon-dioxide gases at a single stroke and would be a profitable investment.
The new national gas grid is currently being installed under the Shannon estuary at Labasheeda, about three miles to the east of Moneypoint.
But the ESB spokesman said there were no plans for connecting Moneypoint to the national grid. The station was originally commissioned in 1986 and is close to the end of its life span.
Among the company's fossil-fuel-burning stations are Tarbert, Co Kerry, Poolbeg in Dublin, Great Island in Co Wexford, Marina and Aghada in Co Cork, which burn oil or gas. There are peat-burning plants in Cahirciveen, Co Kerry, and Bellacorrick, Co Mayo, and two new stations are due to be commissioned in Lanesboro and Shannonbridge in the midlands.
The ESB applied for planning permission for the Moneypoint site after commissioning a consultancy company, Brady Shipman Martin, which said the addition of the nine turbines to the twin chimneys would present itself as "a positive experience" for visitors travelling on the estuary 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."
• Plans have been announced for a major wind-farm near Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, which would meet the energy needs of some 9,000 homes. Hibernian Wind Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ESB, proposes to erect 13 wind turbines on high ground near Treenagleragh.