Diageo, the maker of Guinness, has signed one of the largest green energy contracts to date in Ireland, to buy all of its electricity from renewable sources.
It will see all of the electricity supplied to the firm's four breweries in the country coming from wind farms and wind turbines.
The contract, worth €2.5 million a year, will make Diageo one of the single biggest users of renewable electricity in the State.
The renewable energy will be supplied by Bord Gáis, which now has an electricity wholesale business and which will in turn buy electricity from different wind farm generation facilities.
The electricity will be supplied to four breweries: Dundalk, Kilkenny, Waterford and the home of Guinness at St James's Gate in Dublin. It will be used as part of the brewing process for Guinness and other beers.
The St James's Gate brewery remains one of the largest in Europe, and half of its output is exported.
The renewable electricity will be used in addition to the power generated on-site by the company's own small heat and power plant, which was installed six years ago.
This high-tech facility, although it uses fossil fuel gas, is estimated to be twice as energy efficient as traditional power plants.
Renewable energy, although growing, accounts for only 2.5 per cent of the electricity generated in Ireland in 2005. The Government aims to have 33 per cent of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020.
Although a small number of electricity suppliers provide renewable-only energy contracts for commercial users, there are no such products for home users, as the ESB remains the only supplier in the domestic sector.
Diageo's renewable energy contract is the latest environmental initiative by the company, which is attempting to build up an image as one of the most environmentally friendly firms operating in the State.
In recent years it has managed to eliminate the use of landfill for its solid wastes.
Dark grain by-products from brewing are used as a compost ingredient, while pale spent grains are used as an animal feed.
It its Smithwick brewery in Kilkenny, brewing by-products are passed through a biofilter and the nutrients used to fertilise willow trees. The willow trees are to be used to make woodchips for domestic heating sources.