Attractively sited on the River Brosna, Ferbane is a picturesque village, which has prospered from the surrounding activities on the boglands.
Steeped in bog heritage, the town’s name itself is said to come from the white bog cotton which grows on the bogs.
Ireland’s first milled-peat fired power station was commissioned by the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) at Ferbane in 1957. It was the first such power plant outside of the former U.S.S.R. Construction had begun in 1953.
The total capacity of the Station was 90,000 kilowatts, and it was capable of producing about 400 million units of electricity a year. At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the station burned 2,000 tonnes of Irish peat daily, producing about 2 million units of electricity daily when its four units were at full load.