Irish wind power firm announces €850m deal

MAINSTREAM Renewable Energy — the Irish wind power company headed by former Airtricity boss, Eddie O’Connor — has signed its second multi-million euro energy development deal in as many weeks.

The Dublin-headquartered company, which is only a year old, yesterday announced an €850 million joint venture with South African company, Genesis Eco-Energy, which aims to build a pipeline of more than 500 megawatts of wind energy off the coast of South Africa by 2014. Construction on the first phase of the project is due to begin next year.

Just last week, Mainstream completed a €509m joint venture deal in Canada, with the Alberta Wind Energy Corporation, which is looking to develop 400 megawatts of power in Canada over the next four years.

Commenting on the South African deal, Mr O’Connor said: “Wind energy is very much an untapped resource in South Africa and this is a huge opportunity for us. The country is facing serious power shortages due to the lack of generating capacity. This has placed a severe growth constraint on the South African economy, which is heavily reliant on fossil fuels.”

He said: “We are confident the South African Government will shortly implement appropriate policies to kick-start and support the wind energy market.”