Where the new wind farm will be located
OVER 50 CONSTRUCTION jobs are to be created in west Fermanagh over the coming year after £23m work was announced at the Ora More wind project, two miles north of Belcoo.
National Toll Roads (NTR plc) announced yesterday the acquisition of the 15 megawatt (MW) Ora More wind project from RES, a leading renewable energy developer.
The project is expected to enter construction in the autumn, creating over 50 construction jobs over the coming year with commissioning targeted for the final quarter of 2016.
Capital costs for the project are over £23m, which will be financed by equity and project finance debt NTR have said. Upon completion Ora More is expected to produce over 42,000 MWhr of green energy per year, enough to support the annual electricity requirements of just under 10,000 homes.
Trade unionist and Belcoo resident Donal O’Cofaigh explained that NTR consulted the local community extensively and said there was general support for the project.
“This is a very significant investment and there is a need for us all to support the investment in renewable generating capacity. The thing for us is we would like to see some employment come from this for the local community.”
Despite concerns the employment could be outsourced Mr O’Cofaigh believes the jobs are suitable for local workers.
“I think construction jobs would probably come from the local economy. I think they would be suitable for local people and if not it would be good to see the company offer training for local workers so that they could take up those opportunities.
“The only thing is they are not probably not going to be very long-term jobs, but there is a lot of work with maintenance and that’s something we have got to think about. The North-west of Ireland has huge potential for wind and wave energy and we need to be training up people to maintain and upgrade these facilities.”
NTR Chief Executive Rosheen McGuckian added: “The Ora More wind project is a significant addition to our wind fleet in Northern Ireland, where we also have twelve single turbine projects under construction and in operation. RES has developed an outstanding project and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to acquire Ora More at this point. NTR intends to construct the project and operate it over its lifetime.”
The acquisition marks the first multi-turbine transaction in NTR’s strategy to build and operate circa 175 megawatt of wind over the coming two years across the Irish and UK wind markets.
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