Environmental protesters seeking to block an emissions-cutting €1.5bn wind farm in order to preserve a weather station typify the shortsightedness that will hamper State in meeting its targets
Wind farm proposed for off the coast of Connemara: A project that would make a tangible contribution to Ireland meeting its climate change targets has been stymied by well-organised and resourced environmental activists.
The measures in question are set out in the revised national energy and climate plan . The flagship item is the development of 200 anaerobic digesters which will produce biomethane from grass, slurry and food waste. There will also be a “pivot” from road freight to rail freight, with new rail lines being built and old ones reopened. Carbon capture and storage combined with a ramp up of renewable energy, including offshore wind, will make up the balance, Ryan believes.
The project is one of four selected by EirGrid last year that will be connected to the national grid and thus able to sell their power. As such, it is a flagship for the offshore wind sector. Its operator, Corio Generation, hopes to submit a planning application this year. When it was pointed out to Peter Sweetmen of Wild Ireland Defence – the limited liability company that took the challenge – that the project was important to the development of wind energy he replied: “It’s not our problem.”
Local residents – and one suspects some not-so-local residents with holiday homes in the vicinity – have organised a petition to “highlight” concern about possible “impacts on sites of historical and scientific importance, tourism and fishing which sustain local communities”. It is presumably a precursor to a challenge to the planning application. Among the issues raised is the possibility that a weather station on Mace Head will have to be moved as the turbines will affect its measurements.
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