The Government has given the go-ahead for the biggest offshore wind farm in the world.
Irish company Eirtricity will start work on the €630 million project in the spring, and the farm will start generating electricity in the autumn.
It is believed the wind farm will generate 10 per cent of State's electricity - enough for 500,000 households .
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Announcing the project in Dublin this morning, Minister for Marine and Natural Resources Mr Frank Fahey said: "Today heralds the dawning of a new age of clean green energy, harvested from two plentiful renewable resources, the sea and the wind".
Mr Fahey said today the huge plant would pose no environmental problems.
The 200-turbine, 520-megawatt wind farm will be situated 7 kilometres off the Co Wicklow coast on sandbanks known as the Arklow Banks. It will be three times the combined capacity of the other 20 offshore wind farms currently operating in the world.
The Government says phase one of the project, when operational, will replace some €330 million of imported fossil fuels and the State will receive up to €1.9 million a year in revenues from Eirtricity.
The underwater sections of its turbines, each sunk into at least 15 metres of the sea bed, are expected to encourage marine wildlife species.
Eirtricity comprises a number of Irish-owned companies, headed by Mr Eddie O'Connor, former chief of Bord na Móna.
The company already operates two land-based wind farms in Ireland, with two more being built, and offers power at a price 10 per cent lower than orthodox electricity to several hundred small and medium-sized business customers throughout the Republic.
Mr O'Connor said: "The development of major offshore wind energy parks will be the biggest energy revolution since the internal combustion engine. Offshore wind energy alone could provide up to two-thirds of Europe's electricity needs by 2020.
"The resource is there, the technology is proven, the costs continue to drop - all that is needed is the political will to see it happen".
(additional reporting PA)
