A Tralee restaurateur is leading an alternative energy project, and one that has fended off opposition from stern competition to win a Government contract. It is called the Green Electricity Programme.
Mr Mike Barry, who runs the Skillet restaurant in Tralee, also has had an abiding interest in alternative energy and how it might be applied.
He formed a company with that purpose in mind some time ago. Called Saorgus Energy, the company entered the competition organised by the Department of Public Enterprise, bidding against almost 300 other companies in different categories. Saorgus was one of 14 successful entrants.
Own resources, private funding, banks and the corporate sector have come together to fund the £12 million windfarm project which Mr Barry has proposed for a 150-acre bog site at Tursillagh. A total of 23 wind turbines will produce enough energy to supply all the domestic needs of a town like Tralee.
He says that to get the same amount of power from burning oil would involve up to £900,000 a year in oil imports. "Wind is to Ireland what oil is to the Saudis, except that oil will run out and wind will not."
The project will sell its output to the national grid, and while the development stage will involve the creation of 150 jobs, when the scheme is up and running only three people will be required. Each of the successful applicants will be required to lodge a £45,000 bond with the Department. No project, no refund, is the message.
Next month, An Bord Pleanala will issue its decision on the planning application for the wind farm. If that hurdle is cleared, there will be a six-month construction period. Energy will start to flow next year. The site is 12 kilometres from the sea and 1,000 feet above sea level. As you might guess, wind is not a problem.