THE LONG READ: Supreme Court wind farm decision will have implications for Offaly developments

THE Supreme Court decision on Coolglass wind farm in Laois is a very complex ruling and one with immense and unknowable consequences.

The Proposal and the Decision

In 2023 Coolglass Wind Farms Ltd lodged a planning application with Laois County Council for thirteen wind pylons on a large area of semi-forested elevated land south of Timahoe and stretching southwards across ten townlands from Fossy Mountain to Coolglass.

The Council refused permission as the site was in an area which its County Development Plan 2021-2027 had ruled out for wind farms due to its visual sensitivity. The applicants appealed to An Comisúin Pleanála who upheld the Council's refusal and dismissed their assertions that the project was of strategic importance which would help in discharging national energy policy.

The applicants then took a judicial review to the High Court which agreed with their argument but the Comisúin then appealed the High Court's decision to the Supreme Court.

Some days ago the Supreme Court quashed the Comisiún's decision on the grounds that it had failed to consider whether or not the Laois County Development Plan was in compliance with Section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon (Amendment) Act 2019.

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The Court found that the evident purpose and effect of the Act is to strengthen the obligations imposed upon bodies, including the Comisiúin, and "to make the performance of all their functions consistent with the climate objectives insofar as is practicable".

In their ruling, the judges added that the legislation requires that all public bodies must comply with the Act "as far as is practicable" though this allows for "a range of possible outcomes open to the relevant body".

This could allow the Comisiúin to refuse permission to a renewable energy project because it contravenes a development plan, as was the case with the Coolglass proposal, but only if it has considered if that development plan is consistent with climate objectives.

"It is not apparent that the Comisiúin ever engaged with that question in a real and substantive way, and instead the decision and report are phrased in terms that seem to imply that the very fact that the development would contravene the development plan was considered itself a reason to refuse the permission."

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What Happens Next?

The application will now go back to the Comisiúin who will have to interrogate the success or failure of Laois County Council in achieving its target goals. Presumably, if the Council can demonstrate that it is meeting or even exceeding them, permission will be refused once again as the wind farm development is not in an approved location.

Should it transpire however that the Council is failing to meet its climate targets, the application may be looked on more favourably.

As a direct consequence of the Supreme Court's decision every planning authority will now have to be explicit as to how it is taking into account its climate targets and not just say that it is ‘having regard’ to them . But if it can be clearly shown that its Development Plan is consistent with the Climate Act, it follows that any development based on its provisions will be permitted if all other considerations are met.

The Court's ruling has been greeted with delight by environmental campaigners who see it as having implications for the future assessment of projects such as data centres, major infrastructure and road schemes, liquid gas importation terminals and urban generated rural housing.

Opponents of windfarms on the other hand are alarmed that County Development Plan restrictions on their location have apparently been set aside and a free for all is about to begin. Developers are dismayed at the uncertainty the decision may have brought to the planning process.

Implications for Offaly

When it comes to mitigating the ill effects of climate change, Offaly has a good story to tell.

Due to the closure of its peat-powered electricity plants and its focus on renewables the county has already jumped from tenth place nationally to third place in terms of renewable energy creation on a county-by-county level.This is largely down to the conversion of the Edenderry turf-fired power plant’s conversion to biomass, as well as the contribution of the three new wind farms that opened in 2024.

Today Offaly’s contribution to national installed wind capacity amounts to 2.33%. A potential additional 287.3 MW of energy will be generated by permitted wind farms in the east and west of the county and the combined total will bring output to 385.8 MW, which equates to 4.7 % of the national target for onshore wind capacity by 2030.

But in assessing any future major projects, its own or those of others, the Council will now need to provide a realistic assessment of their nature and extent and how they will contribute to or detract from the actual achievement of its adopted climate goals.

One inference that may be drawn from the Coolglass decision is that if a planning authority is not meeting its climate targets it may have to grant permission for a few wind farms in areas which it considers unsuitable in order to balance the books.

The Council must soon embark on making a new 10 year plan to guide Offaly’s future. In the light of this significant decision its primary objective can no longer just be the improvement of the county and the protection of its landscape but the salvation of the planet itself. Eowyn and Chandra have demonstrated the future we are otherwise facing and it is now up to Offaly County Council to demonstrate that both objectives are achievable. It will be a long and difficult task.

In the shorter term the early winners from this landmark ruling are the lawyers and planning consultants who must be relishing the uncertainty which the phrase ‘as far as is practicable ‘ has brought and the imminence of the raft of high profile cases which will be taken in order to resolve and clarify its implications.