Power is blowing in the wind

Future Wind Partnership, a company headed by former Bord na Mona chief executive Mr Eddie O'Connor, has formed a joint venture…

Future Wind Partnership, a company headed by former Bord na Mona chief executive Mr Eddie O'Connor, has formed a joint venture with National Toll Roads to invest in wind energy.

The company is aiming to sell £100 million (€127 million) worth of wind-generated electricity to mainly commercial customers within five years of the deregulation of the domestic electricity market next February.

Neither Future Wind Partnership nor NTR would give any detail on the investment involved in the wind power project. Mr O'Connor said it would be carried out on a roughly 50-50 basis between his company and NTR.

He said that sites have been identified for wind generators in the most windswept counties of the south and west of the State, but added that selling wind power to commercial customers will have to wait for the Electricity Regulator's decision on leased line costs from the ESB.