The country's largest privately-owned electricity generating station was officially opened today by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. The Huntstown power station in north Dublin, owned by the Northern Ireland based Viridian group, will supply almost 10% of the national grid.
It cost €250m to complete and will generate 345 megawatts of power. About 10% of the output of the power plant is exported to Northern Ireland
The station is a combined gas and steam plant and is fed by pipeline with gas from both the UK and Ireland. Its electricity has already been sold for the next year to big corporate clients such as the nearby Liffey Valley shopping centre.
Viridian also has plans to develop a second generation plant at the Huntstown site.
'It is the intention of Viridian to be a major player in the Irish market,' said Harry McCracken, Group Managing Director at Viridian Power and Energy today.
'We didn't come into the market to build a power station, we came to build a significant business. The Huntstown power station project and Viridian's entry into the Irish market is a success and it is our intention to build upon this beginning,' he added.
