Green light for solar farm
PLANNERS have given the thumbs-up to a plan by Cork based Amarenco Solar for a 5MW solar farm on a site at Dromgariff South, Whitechurch. This follows the successful application by the same company for a similar facility in Mallow.
PLANNERS with Cork County Council have given the green light to an application by Cork based company Amarenco Solar for a solar farm on a 10.2 hectare site at Dromgarriff South, Whitechurch.
The facility is one 12 planned for sites around the county by the company, which was founded by former Bord Gáis chief executive John Mullins.
The Whitechurch development will consist of 22,200 photovoltaic panels on ground mounted frames, two single inverter/transformer stations, a delivery station, security fencing, CCTV cameras and associated site works.
Once operational, the solar farm will generate five mega-watts of electricity, enough to power approximately 1,000 homes, which will be fed back into the national grid.
While granting permission for the Whitechurch facility, council planners did stipulate 26 separate conditions that the developer must fulfil before and during construction.
They deal largely with issues such as the protection of local wildlife and fauna, flood protection, water quality and archaeological preservation.
Planners also stipulated that the all structures be removed not later that 25-year after commissioning unless planning permission has been granted for its retention.
Following the granting of permission for the new facility Amarenco Solar now has five plants with total capacity of 25MW with full planning approval in Cork.
The other sites are in Mallow, Timoleague, Carrgaline and Inniscarra.
Further developments by Amarenco at Ballinvarrig East, Castlelyons; Corrin/Kill St Anne, Castlelyons; Coolclogh, Kanturk and Crookstown are all pending, with planners seeking additional information in relation to the applications.
Welcoming approval for the Whitechurch site Mr Mullins said it was part of a “significant” number applications being proposed by the company for Ireland.
He said the company was ready to invest in the plant and its other sanctioned facilities, but could was unable to move forward until the government followed the lead of other EU countries and published solar PV tariffs.
“Not only are we looking at investment and job creation, but a significant new source of renewable energy,” said Mr Mullins.
He pointed out that as far back as the end of 2015 the government published a white paper on energy designed to enable Ireland to meet its EU binding obligations for renewable energy.
“Unfortunately, we are no closer to meeting these targets,” said Mr Mullins.
“We hope and expect that decisions on renewable implementation will be taken by Government in 2017, so that the taxpayer is not left paying very large annual bills from 2010 that will run into hundreds of millions of Euro,” he added.