Windfarm plan in the pipeline for idle Bottlehill dump site
THE future of the mothballed €48 million Bottlehill ‘super-dump’ has once again come under the spotlight after it emerged a Canadian company is planning to build a windfarm on the site.
Bottlehill was initially scheduled to open in 2010. However, Cork County Council deemed it to be economically unviable due to a surplus of landfill space in Cork, combined with an increase in EU levies on landfill.
This has left the authority with a massive financial headache after shelling thousands of euros each year to maintain the site.
The authority has confirmed discussions are at an advanced stage with Brookfield Renewable, which is hoping to take over a portion of the site for a windfarm development.
It is understood the bid is just one of a number being considered by the council for use of the site after they issued a call for proposals through the Office Journal of the European Union.
The council is confident that Bottlehill will become viable as other landfill sites reach capacity over the coming years. In the meantime, the authority is eager to recoup some money for the taxpayer by using sections of the 250-acre site for energy-related projects.
The council is understood to view the Brookfield project, which would see more than 20 wind turbines installed on a section of the site that would not impinge on the landfill area itself, to be one of the most financially beneficial bids.
Louis Duffy, the head of the council’s environment directorate, said full details of any windfarm development including the number, type and layout of the turbines would be determined through a public consultation process between local residents and Brookfield Renewable.
He said this process would begin shortly to ensure that local individuals and communities would have a say in the design of the project.
He said Brookfield had already surveyed the site and aimed to build on sections of the site that would limit disruption to local householders and that they hoped to lodge a planning application with the authority within the next 12-months.
Mr Duffy said while the council had yet to make a final decision on the other bids it had received the authority was “advancing detail development with Brookfield to ensure that there is no conflict with these other proposals prior to making its decision on further possible activities on the site.”
Brookfield Renewable has also commenced discussions with adjoining landowners, including Coillte, in relation to potential energy related projects in the wider area outside of the landfill site.
Mr Duffy said that any proposals for the site and the wider area would require authorisation under the Planning and Development Acts and may be dealt with under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006.