Submission deadline to object to Offaly Wind Farm is July 3rd
‘If bogs were books then Sharavogue Bog would be the Book of Kells’
A WELL-ATTENDED public meeting in Ballyegan Hall near Birr on Thursday evening was told that the deadline for making a submission against the proposed 11 mega turbine project called Ballincor Wind Farm is July 3rd.
The company behind the project is the German energy giant RWE which lodged its application to An Coimisiún Pleanála a couple of weeks ago under the Application Reference Reference Number PAX92.324279.
The Greater Birr Wind Action Group is strongly urging as many locals as possible to submit personal, individual objections to the development. With this in mind they are holding a number of advice clinics to help you make a submission. One of these clinics will be in Ballyegan Hall on Saturday June 6th from 4 to 7pm. All are welcome and people can email: [email protected] or [email protected]. There will also be another public information evening in Shinrone Hall at 8pm on Wednesday June 3, which will give people a chance to have their say.
The 11 turbines of Ballincor will have blades reaching 180 metres into the sky, on land in the Ballincor townland, which borders Sharavogue Bog, a Special Area of Conservation. Sharavogue is one of Ireland's best-preserved and unique raised bogs. It's also one of the few remaining bogs in the country situated directly on a floodplain. For this reason alone many locals think it is completely wrong to build a Wind Farm here. For several people, the nearest turbine will be less than one kilometre away.
The Greater Birr Wind Action Group says it's not opposed to turbines, but Ballincor is a completely inappropriate location. They also point out that Offaly has put up more than its fair share of turbines. It is estimated that there are more than 70 turbines within a 5km radius of Birr. There's also a proposal to build a wind farm just a kilometre from Clonmacnoise. RWE, which has a market capitalisation of almost €39 billion, thought it would meet little resistance for its Ballincor project, but the opposition has been strong. The Greater Birr Group says 220 families will be affected.
Liam Egan is one of the owners of the bog and is strongly opposed to the wind farm. Liam is Chairperson of the Greater Birr Group. Nearby is the Little Brosna River. One of the proposals is to build a raised roadway of 5km in length, and Liam is worried it could cause big problems in a place that’s already a floodplain. There's also the important point that this area wasn't deemed suitable for wind farm development in the County Development Plan.
RWE is offering to pay landowners. The exact amounts are confidential but landowners across Ireland have been paid up to €40,000 per turbine per annum. It's understood that several landowners in the Rath Beg-Ballincor area have made deals with RWE.
Last November, the Climate Change Advisory Council warned that Ireland was failing to meet its climate targets due to an over reliance on fossil fuels. The country could face fines of up to €26 billion if it fails to meet its legally binding 2030 commitments. However, Deputy John Clendennen has pointed out that Offaly is one of the top counties per capita when it comes to green energy, arguing that the county, which occupies just 2pc of the island of Ireland’s landmass, provides 8pc of its wind energy.
During last Thursday's public meeting in Ballyegan Hall, Liam Egan pointed out that there is only five weeks left for people to get their submissions in against the Wind Farm.
He said the Greater Birr Wind Action Group has done an awful lot of work and has lots still to do. “The amount of talent in the Group is amazing to me. We have been working on this since last Autumn.” He praised Laura Dargan and Nichola Culleton for being especially hard working. He thanked everyone for making the effort to attend the meeting on a nice summer evening. “We didn't start this fight,” he remarked, “but we are not shying away from it either.”
Liam pointed out that RWE withdrew two of its planning applications to An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP). The company made three applications to ACP. Each application cost €100,000. “That gives you an idea of the massive entity that we are challenging, it gives you an idea of the money behind this wind farm. It's a powerful company. However, powerful companies can be beaten.”
He said the Greater Birr Wind Action Group is going to submit one submission objecting to the Wind Farm to ACP. “However, I would urge as many individuals as possible in the community to please submit your own private, individual objections to the proposed Wind Farm. That is very important. An individual submission will cost you €50.”
He said the Group has raised €13,400 so far and needs to raise another €3,000 to €4,000 to make as effective a submission as possible.
Laura Dargan urged people to join the WhatsApp group. She said RWE had originally planned to make its application to ACP last December but delayed, possibly because of a bird survey. She said the Group believes that its best chance of being successful in its objection to the development lies in the environmental rather than the people impact the mega turbines will cause. “For example, RWE is saying the turbines will be constructed in a flood zone, which sounds like a very impractical plan to us. We believe the hydrological and the ornithological impacts will be profound. RWE claims the effects on birds will be negligible but we can see anomalies in their arguments. We also believe that the impact on the area's rich biodiversity will be problematic for RWE, such as the adverse impact on Sharavogue Bog, on flora and fauna, the otters, badgers, bats, owls, marsh fritillaries. We are told that the area is the most dense breeding zone for owls in the country. We were told that the NPWS asked RWE to carry out an appropriate survey but RWE didn't do that.”
Laura said the group will also be objecting to the impacts of noise, shadow flicker, the visual impact on the landscape and the impact on the price of property, “but we believe that our strongest arguments lie in the adverse effects on the area's biodiversity, because biodiversity is tied into EU law, into EU regulations.”
She said Offaly County Council, Birdwatch Ireland and the NPWS all support the group's opposition to the development. Others objecting will probably include Ormand Flying Club, the Ireland Peatland Conservation Council and I-LOFAR.
“Many of us have grown up in the area,” commented Liam, “and we are proud of the area. Someone recently said to me that if bogs were books then Sharavogue Bog would be the Book of Kells.”
Cllr Peter Ormond pointed out that when the construction work is going on it will have a massively negative impact on the local road network for months. “We have calculated that day after day there will be a large lorry going down to the construction site every six minutes.” He said the Grid Connector trenching work will also be massively disruptive for many months. He added that the loads being brought to the site could be 90 metres in length and there was a chance of the old railway bridge near the Black Bull being damaged. “The Grid Connector work will be a very slow process. It will take 50 weeks and will delay traffic going to and from Birr.”
Cllr Seán Maher said it was notable that in spite of all the wind farms across Ireland the electricity prices are still rising. “We were led to believe that with renewables our electricity bills would go down. This has not been the case.”
One person told the meeting that he believes the country should construct at least two nuclear power stations.