An Irish energy company is looking north to recruit new staff for a tidal turbine plant.

OpenHydro currently has a workforce of around 50 permanent employees mostly located at the company's Technical Centre in Greenore, Co Louth, only 20 minutes from Newry.

The firm, which designs and manufactures marine turbines for generating renewable energy has announced plans to recruit 20 positions over the next 18 months and hopes a number of the new positions will be filled by skilled professionals, based in Northern Ireland.

The latest recruitment drive coincides with the company's immediate plans to scale up production of its tidal turbines to meet growing global demand for the technology.

The jobs will be in engineering and operations, to include project engineers and managers, manufacturing engineers, as well as specialist finite element and structural engineers. The company is also looking for graduates.

James Ives, chief executive of OpenHydro said that the firm is to supply tidal turbines to projects in the France, Canada, USA, Ireland, and the UK.

"While we have cutting-edge technology, we believe that our people are our most valuable asset and we are determined to reward and invest in them."