Energia is set to generate 200 direct roles and thousands of construction jobs.
Energy company Energia will invest more than €3bn into renewable energy generation in Ireland over the next five years, creating 200 direct jobs in the process. The new roles will be in areas such as customer energy solutions and renewable energy.
The company also said that the investment will generate between 3,000 and 5,000 construction roles over the five-year period.
Energia has had operations in Ireland for 20 years and currently employs 800 people across the island.
The investment was announced today (1 July) by Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Richard Bruton, TD. Dr Gautam Bhandari, managing partner and co-founder of I Squared Capital, was also in attendance.
Projects that Energia plans to develop include on- and off-shore wind farms, solar power, bio-energy facilities, hydrogen fuel generation and the smart grid. The company said this is in line with the Irish Government’s commitment to increasing the amount of electricity generated by renewable sources from its current rate of 30pc up to 70pc by 2030.
Energia anticipates that this investment will add up to 1.5GW of renewable energy to the grid over the course of this programme.
As well as this, the energy group recently revealed that it would process a minimum of 70,000 tonnes of organic waste annually from Panda at a new bioenergy plant at Huntstown in north Dublin.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions means making big changes, at Government, business, community and individual level,” commented An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, TD, who was also in attendance at the launch in Dublin.
“Under the Government’s Climate Action Plan, we want to increase the amount of energy produced from renewable sources. To do this, we need industry to step up to the mark. I commend Energia Group for announcing this €3bn investment in a range of renewable energy projects, from wind farms to bio-energy, which will help us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, give us cleaner air and reduce the need for expensive fossil fuel imports.”
Energia Group CEO Ian Thom echoed Varadkar’s positive sentiments and said that the company has to date invested more than €1bn in the Irish energy market. “Our decision to invest over €3bn in renewable technology and energy infrastructure in the coming years is a clear signal of our intent to build on our continuous commitment to Irish communities, the economy and the sustainability of Ireland’s energy supply.”
In 2017, Energia opened what was then reported as Ireland’s largest wind farm in Meenadreen, Co Donegal. At 95MW, it aimed at the time to power 50,000 homes. It was developed over the course of 26 months at a cost of €145m.
