MAUREEN DE PIETRO isn't planning to sell up any time soon.

"We get offers from time to time, with people wanting to invest, but we've turned them down, " she said, speaking from her Cork home last week.

Her company, DP Energy, is owned jointly with her son, Simon. It's one of several wind energy firms in Ireland that have sprung up in recent years and are capitalising on a political will . . . not one where the reality necessarily matches the vision . . . to decrease dependency on volatile supplies of imported oil and gas.

But as the wind farm landgrab continues, the market is becoming ripe for consolidation. The long-awaited 100m acquisition of the wind energy assets of SWS should be completed before Christmas, with both Ion Equity and Philip Lynch's One51 the main runners in the race. This isn't consolidation, but industry insiders think it shows the way the sector will go.

"I think it's like any other business. You'll have some small companies that will be able to stick it, but there'll be others that will sell up and just take the money, " said Aidan Forde, chief executive of Kerry-based Saorgus. "I do think that in five or ten years' time there will be far fewer players."

Part of the reason for that is the escalating cost of bringing projects to fruition. Costs, including planning and capital, have probably risen by about 50% in the past couple of years.

"A 10m project these days is nothing, " added Forde. "You wouldn't get 7MW on the ground for that and you're going to have to put up 2m in equity to build it. A lot of people wouldn't find it easy to get hold of that kind of money."

ESB Networks and the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) are just finalising the so-called Gate 2 renewable generator connection applications. The process determines which projects will be connected to an already over-stretched electricity grid.

While the process should be complete by next summer, it could be another couple of years before successful applicants actually see their projects up and running. The lead time will undoubtedly be a disincentive to new entrants, while they must also shoulder the cost of installing highvoltage connections to the grid. Some industry sources believe it will be a several years before Gate 3 comes on stream, leaving existing players with few options but to join forces with competitors, sell up or acquire other domestic operators, or turn to foreign markets.

"Traditionally, a small independent could spend a relatively small amount of money, maybe about 200,000, to get a project through initial planning and engineering stages.

Those days are gone now, " said Eco Wind Power chief executive Aidan Sweeney, whose firm is a subsidiary of developer Treasury Holdings.

He added that today, companies are paying for grid connections and deposits on wind turbines years in advance of a project coming online.

"You need deeper pockets now. You have to buy in bulk to get the attention of turbine manufacturers. Conditions within the industry are now forcing people to get together."

That need for deep pockets is hammered home by companies such NTR subsidiary Airtricity, which in the past three years has secured finance close to 2bn in debt and equity to bankroll projects in the US, Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe.

Another wind energy asset management firm, Dublinbased Trinergy, is close to securing a 1.1bn refinancing package under a syndication deal being offered by Royal Bank of Scotland. The money will be used by Trinergy to refinance existing projects and expand its operations. It is already the single biggest wind farm operator in Italy and has operations in Germany, the UK and Ireland.

Airtricity's chief operations officer of supply, Dermot O'Kane, said it would be a "pity" if smaller players were unable to remain involved in the industry. However, he also sees it as a possibility.

"It may come to that, but we wouldn't want to see it happen.

This industry needs to be healthy and needs a whole mix of different people involved, " he said. "One of the best ways we've found to do this is to team up with other developers and that's a way forward for other operators too."

Airtricity has had plenty of spats with ESB and the CER, and O'Kane is always ready to have another go.

"We've always told the CER that the sooner they collapse this queue of companies waiting for connections [to the grid], the better for everybody because we'll then see what the real picture is, " he claimed.

"The grid moratorium on wind power in the past created a scarcity of a product.

But when the moratorium was lifted a lot of companies rushed in the wind energy projects."

He maintains that the CER should process the queue of applicants as soon as possible for a clearer picture as to what companies have the financial ability and experience to bring projects to fruition.

Last week Airtricity said it will spend 700m in the next five years to construct a 284MW offshore windfarm in the Netherlands.

One industry source said that, while smaller players are under intense pressure and consolidation is likely, there will be resistance from participants who have spent years pushing projects through the development pipeline.

"People often have strong emotional attachments to projects, " he said, pointing out that while consolidation is a logical step, it may not be as straightforward as expected.

"It could be quite difficult to achieve consolidation because of those attachments.

Also, it's hard to attract foreign operators to Ireland because it is such a small market. But certainly consolidation is what you'd expect to see in coming years."

Even big players are joining forces. Last week, Spanish firm Iberdrola finalised a 15bn deal to buy Scottish Power.

Iberdrola has a significant wind power generation portfolio and plans to construct 10,000MW of wind power capacity by 2011.

But regardless of the international movers and shakers, Maureen De Pietro is hanging on. DP Energy has 33MW of wind generation capacity in Ireland, and has also built wind farms in Scotland. De Pietro won't divulge how much the company has invested in construction, but it's likely to be between 5m and 7m.

"We're really involved in this from an environmental perspective, not for money, " said De Pietro. "By not having investors we can choose what we want to do and I think that's a better position to be in."