Business News

Vayu signs €50m energy deal with Bord Na Móna

By Business & Finance
12 June 2014

Irish energy supplier Vayu has signed a renewable electricity deal with Bord na Móna valued at €50m over 15 years.

As part of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), electricity produced by a new Bord na Móna landfill plant in Co. Kildare will be purchased by Vayu and sold on to its business customers throughout the country.

The plant, which is located at Bord na Móna’s Drehid facility near Allenwood, will come into operation in 2014 and will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 14,000 homes. It will have an annual production of 5.6 megawatts of renewable electricity from gas that is continually produced from the decomposition of waste in the landfill site.

John Daly, head of Resource Recovery, Bord na Móna, said, “Bord na Móna has invested heavily in new and innovative ways of capitalising on all our resources to create further value and uses. This gas power plant is the result of a transformation in the way we look at spent materials, turning household waste into green energy that in turn helps create jobs and a sustainable electricity supply.”

Commenting on the announcement, Colm Kennedy, managing director of Vayu, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Bord na Móna on this project. It’s a great example of the type of initiative that will assist in achieving the Government’s target of 40% renewable generation by 2020. We see enormous potential for renewable schemes such as this to transform the way electricity is produced in Ireland.

“On the business side, Vayu is seeing an increasing demand for renewable electricity as companies opt for more environmentally sustainable solutions, looking to minimise their carbon footprint across all aspects of their operations. Access to competitively priced green electricity is moving up the list of priorities and this is changing the way Irish businesses procure energy.

“There is no question that renewable energy will be a big part of electricity production in Ireland over the decades to come. This is important not only from an environmental sustainability viewpoint but also in terms of the country’s security of supply and longterm economic competitiveness,” added Kennedy. “The good news is that we have an abundant supply of renewable energy resources in Ireland. Only a fraction of these have been harnessed to date so there is enormous potential for development.”