ESB and Coillte are in talks to establish a potential joint venture capable of developing 1,000Mw in renewable energy capacity by 2030, the electricity utility announced in a statement this Monday.

"It’s primarily wind," an ESB spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

"While it will be on Coillte lands, the discussions are in the relatively early stages, so no sites have been confirmed at this stage."

The two companies are proposing to build on previous experience in forming joint ventures to develop wind farms at Raheenleagh, Co Wicklow, and Castlepook, Co Cork.

While they installed 70Mw of generation capacity at these two sites, their discussions now consider investments 14 times larger.

Five-fold return on investment

Coillte's 50% stakes in Raheenleagh and Castlepook were among four wind farm investments it sold last year for €136.1m to UK-owned Greencoat Renewables.

This was more than five times Coillte's initial investment and the company retains ownership of the land and leases income from the wind farms.

According to company figures, 1,000Mw would represent one-third of Ireland's residential and business electricity needs.

Ireland faces steep targets to increase renewable energy generation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

While there has been local opposition to some large wind farms, ESB said that the proposed new developments would be "sensitively located, building on ESB’s and Coillte’s long experience of working with communities across the country".

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Coillte and ESB in talks to develop new wind farms

The State-owned forestry and electricity companies have announced their intention to replicate their past co-operation in renewable energy on a much larger scale.