Wind Energy Direct (WED) Ltd, an Irish Company with a focus on the Irish and UK markets, is to manage, finance, develop and maintain 15 on-site wind turbine facilities as part of a "behind the meter" electricity concept.

WED, which installs wind turbines on our customer's industrial sites via a turnkey service, is to spend €60m, installing wind turbines at 15 locations over the next four years. The company not only finances, owns, operates and maintains the turbines, but it also sells the electricity produced to its customers at a significant discount to their retail rate. This enables its customers to benefit from purchasing green energy at a significant discount to available market prices with no capital outlay.

The turnkey renewable energy source for manufacturing, retail and agricultural locations, that will be the first of its kind operated on a commercial level in the region WED focuses on, will break the link with spiralling energy costs, saving companies with a 4MW installation up to €1m within five years of installation, reported Irish Examiner. According to the same report, this will amount to a saving of over 9,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum and provide enough electricity to power the equivalent of 2236 households.

 "The large-scale Munster-based project involves the installation of two 2MW turbines on-site, providing the company with an estimated €110k saving on its energy bill in year one," reportedly said WED managing director Dominic Costello. "The first step is a feasibility study to determine the economic viability of the project taking into consideration such criteria as wind resource, electrical load profile and planning criteria."