"Nobody believes the oil price will continue to drop in even the medium term, " said Teahon. The price may continue to fall, perhaps as low as $50 a barrel, but would rise again in 2007 to unprecedented heights. "We need to maximise the potential for renewables."

He said the 30% target of electricity to be generated by renewables by 2020 didn't go far enough. "We can do better, " Teahon said.

Speaking from an IWEA-organised energy policy conference in Ennis, Co Clare, Teahon said the government's 30% renewable energy target will be made up almost entirely from wind power and predicted Ireland's generation capacity from wind would grow more than tenfold by 2020.

"It took 10 years for Ireland to get to 500MW. By 2020 it will be 6000MW, just here in the south."

Other conference participants said they hoped ESB would cancel the production of two gas turbine power stations in Co Cork in favour of further wind capacity.