27 August 1997
An£8 million smokeless solid fuel briquettes plant is to be established in North Mayo in October in a joint Norwegian-Irish venture, which will create around one hundred jobs.
Premises are currently being sought at Bunnahowna by Hydro Energi, a subsidiary of the Norwegian industrial giant, Norsk Hydro.
A recruitment drive has begun for manufacturing technicians for a 'highly automated, state-of-the art facility'.
The project is being funded by Udaras na Gaeltachta. The development is unique in Ireland combining peat and other ingredients to make a smokeless fuel.
The Galway based company, Thomas McDonagh & Sons Ltd, which has multiple interests including coal, fertiliser and animal feeds, has a thirty per cent interest in Hydo Energi, believed to be worth over £8m.
It is understood the new product has been developed after considerable research by fuel experts. The briquette will be a smokeless fuel, combining peat with other ingredients.
The initiative is a second attempt to produce a solid fuel briquette after a company called Peat Power had an unsuccessful venture at the same site in the eighties. Its assets were bought by Horsk Hydro in recent years.
A spokesman for Udaras na Gaeltachta said that the impact of the plant on the local economy would be 'phenomenal'.
He said an 1,100 acre bog which surrounds the plant's site would be leased by Udaras to the company.
