ENERGY GROUP Gaelectric has been given the green light for a €22 million wind farm project in Co Tyrone.

The company confirmed yesterday it has been given planning permission for a wind farm with the capacity to generate up to 11.5 mega watts (MW) of electricity at Cregganconroe, Pomeroy, Co Tyrone. It will produce enough electricity to provide energy to 11,000 homes at full capacity.

According to Gaelectric, the project will involve total investment of €22 million, which is in line with the industry standard of €2 million for every 1 MW.

The company has already said €4.4 million of this will be spent with businesses in the local area. About 20 people will be employed building the power plant.

Gaelectric chief executive Brendan McGrath said yesterday the company had been working on developing a range of sites in Antrim and Tyrone over the last number of years: “The Cregganconroe approval is a further important step for Gaelectric and represents our second planning success in Northern Ireland this year.”

Mr McGrath added the group planned to continue investing in the region over the coming years, but stressed the area needed an efficient, well-resourced planning system to support this.

The group has 25 projects at various stages of planning and development throughout Ireland. Its first completed wind farm will be in Roscommon, due to be commissioned by the year’s end.

Gaelectric has operations in the US and Ireland. Its North American headquarters are in Great Falls, Montana. In the US, the company is developing a series of large-scale projects, mainly in the western half of the country.

It has recently bought capacity on a number of electricity transmission systems connected with large population centres such as Las Vegas.

In Ireland, the group has offices in Coleraine, Cork and Dublin. It is focused on developing wind farms and also on working on various energy-storage systems.