Mayo Power Ltd. - the company planning to build a €140m electricity generating plant in North Mayo - is to lodge its planning application with Mayo County Council by the end of the month, it has been confirmed.
Speaking at an information meeting in Killala, Mayo Power Director, Myles Staunton said the planning application process was at the final stages and would be submitted by March 31.
It is estimated that the plant, when fully operational, will provide up to 300 jobs during construction and up to 80 full0time jobs during operation.
"A great many people and companies have been involved in the complex planning process, but Mayo Power is determined to build a state-of-the-art plant, including a circulating fluidised Bed (CFB) boiler that will be of huge economic benefit to the north-west region" - Myles Staunton said.
The plant - which will use a mix of peat, woodchips and a small amount of coal as feedstock - will generate 100MW of power, enough to meet the demand of Mayo (Click Here). The plant is situated in an area of arable land and - given the present Government's commitment to encourage the development of Fast Rotating Crops (such as willow coppice) - the project will promote the maximum use of this resource when available.
The output from the plant will stabilise the transmission system in the area (one of the weakest on the Irish grid) and the plant can access the grid via an existing 110KV system adjacent to the site. The plant will generate cost-effective power and steam, which will be available to attract other industries to the former industrial site.
Also addressing the meeting, Mayo Power Director Martin Packard said the project was entirely in line with the recently published Government White Paper on Energy (Click Here). "The White Paper fully supports the notion of sustainable and renewable energy, including the co-firing of biomass with peat and other fossil fuels. It is the Government's intention to achieve 33 per cent of electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020 and Mayo Power will compliment this goal" - he said.
Mr Pickard added that the Government wished to see many players involved in a new and open market and Mayo Power was ideally placed to fit into this scenario.
Mayo Power is jointly owned by Rockland Mayo Holding Company (a UK and US consortium) and former Mayo TD and Senator, Myles Staunton.
No comments:
Post a Comment