Airtricity

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Airtricity, Ltd
Type of Company	Subsidiary of National Toll Roads
Founded	Dublin, Ireland (1997)
Headquarters	Dublin, Ireland
Key people	Eddie O'Connor - CEO
Products	Electricity
Employees	250+
Website	www.airtricity.com/

Airtricity is a wind farm operator in Ireland. The name is a portmanteau of air and electricity, but is also derived from the word Éire, Irish for "Ireland" (the company was originally known as Eirtricity).

The company, established in 1997, has a generation capacity of 228 MW spread over the counties Cavan, Donegal and Sligo. It also operated the Arklow Bank windfarm, the largest wind farm in Ireland at the time of its construction. It operates both north and south of the Irish border. It also operates windfarms in Scotland, England, Wales and parts of the United States. It currently has several thousands of megawatts of capacity in the planning and construction stages.

Airtricity is 51% owned by NTR plc - the company that operates the East-Link and West-Link toll bridges in Dublin - and is run by Dr. Eddie O' Conner, former head of Bord na Móna.

Wind generators on its wind farms generate electricity though wind power. Concerns have been raised that wind powered generation places a false economy on the electricity market; this is because as more farms are connected thus conventional methods of generation are required to "cover" in times of low wind speed. However, numerous studies have shown that up to 20% wind penetration into national grids presents few technical or economic problems. Visual 'pollution' and the placement of wind farms is also a concern.

Airtricity has unveiled preliminary plans to build a supergrid, a HVDC electric cable running from Spain to the Baltic Sea and connecting several large offshore wind parks.

[edit] See also

• List of Irish companies

[edit] External links

• Official site

Electricity generation in Ireland
Companies / organisations Airtricity | Dublin Bay Power | EirGrid | Electricity Supply Board | Huntstown Power | Imera Power | Northern Ireland Electricity | Nuclear Energy Board | Premier Power (NI)
Electricity generating stations Aghada | Ardnacrusha | Ballylumford (NI) | Carnsore Point | Lanesboro | Moneypoint | Poulaphouca | Ringsend (Poolbeg) | Shannonbridge | Tarbert | Turlough Hill
(NI) indicates Northern Ireland