The Aughinish Alumina company is to build a 140 megawatt power plant at its site at Askeaton, Co Limerick.
The power plant will cost €100m and will generate 40 megawatts of electricity annually for the Aughinish Alumina manufacturing company. The remaining 100 megawatts of power will be fed into the national grid.
Aughinish employs 450 people at Askeaton and an additional 200 people are expected to be employed during the construction of the new plant.
The company imports bauxite and produces almost 1.5 million tonnes of alumina each year which is then exported to aluminium smelters across Europe.
