Wind farms offering millions of Euro to the people of South Offaly

Wind farm companies are offering millions of Euro to the people of South Offaly.

A meeting of Birr 20:20 was told last week that communities would be given €466,000 per year from one wind farm alone.

Two representatives of the wind farm company Galetech (which operates Cloghan wind farm) addressed the community group's meeting. They were Deirdre Keegan, Community Liaison, and James Carville, Project Developments Director.

The two representatives spoke at length about the Community Benefit Fund which every wind farm company is obliged to feed back into local communities. This is part of the RESS, explained Deirdre, the Renewable Energy Support Scheme. RESS is part of the Programme for Government and the Climate Action Plan 2021 and was created with the aim of achieving the target of at least 80% renewable electricity by 2030.

“A key feature of the RESS,” she explained, “is that all renewable electricity generation projects must establish a Community Benefit Fund to be used for the wider economic, environmental, social and cultural wellbeing of the local community. The contribution is set at €2 per Megawatt hour of generation of the RESS project. This means there are real and quantifiable funds being made available annually for the benefit of the local community. The Fund will be aligned to incentivise investment in local renewable energy, energy efficiency measures and climate action initiatives.”

The Fund becomes available one year after the commencement of the commercial operation of the wind farm and it lasts for 15 years. During the 15 years every household living within one kilometre of the wind farm is paid €1,000 per year.

The Gaeltech reps said their company will make a planning application for another wind farm. This new wind farm will consist of 11 turbines and will be located in Cush, about 5 kms from Birr, on the Birr / Cloghan road, the N62. It will have an output of 6 – 8 MW per turbine of renewable energy, enough to provide about 46,000 houses with green energy every year. When this farm is constructed, she remarked, the Community Benefit Fund will be €466,000 per year and this will be given out to the community each year, for 15 years. The reps said local clubs and societies within about a 10 kilometre radius would be eligible to apply. It could include groups such as Birr Tidy Towns or Birr Historical Society. 10% of the €466,000 will go towards administration; 40% will go towards not for profit Sustainable Goals (such as educational projects and training programmes) - €186,400; and the balance of €173,000 will go towards clubs and societies, again not for profit. When communities are making applications for the funding they should consider what is in their communities, what needs upgrading, what needs changing, what additional needs have the community? Communities should identify strengths and opportunities for future development, including: enterprise, tourism, environment, education, recreation, and community infrastructure.

Deirdre said Galetech is 20 years in operation and its HQ is in Cavan. There are 130 employees in the company, which is growing.

She pointed out that wind farm companies also pay rates to the Council.

Explaining how the Community Benefit Fund operates she said the three main players are the Developer, the Administrator and the Community Fund Committee. The Developer in this instance is Galetech, which will most probably appoint the Administrator. The Community Fund Committee will consist of members of the local community. She said the Administrator will support and guide the Community Fund Committee. The Community Fund Committee will consist of a minimum of five people and will typically oversee about 20 projects per annum. Projects, she said, could include things such as renovating a local hall. She added that the fund application process will not be onerous.

Eventually, there will be four wind farms in the Birr / Cloghan area and the Benefit Fund from these will amount to millions of Euro for the benefit of locals.