A limited liability company called Gort Windfarms Limited (GWL) recently made a planning application to An Coimisúin Pleanála . It concerns a wind farm on Slieve Aughty in rural Co Galway, consisting of 70 major wind turbines with generating capacity to power 30,000 homes.
You might think that is good news, bearing in mind that we are falling far behind our national targets to build renewable wind generating capacity both on land and offshore. We have recently seen a number of setbacks for wind power projects.
A wind farm of that size and capacity would cost up to €200 million in today’s prices.
But you would, alas, be very wrong about this being good news.
You might think a planning application for a windfarm is good news. You’d be wrong
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The planning application is, in fact, to dismantle the existing GWL wind farm and to remove the existing 70 turbines, to demolish the electricity substation to which they were connected and the compound in which the substation is connected, to remove the 110 kV overhead line connecting the facility to the national electricity network at a different substation, to deconstruct that substation and control building, to remove all other ancillary equipment, and to restore the Ennis-Shannonbridge 110 kV power line to its old condition.
The planning application will also entail establishment of three temporary compounds for execution of all that work and other work on the network of existing service roads for the 70 turbines, as well as improvements to existing access roads and forestry tracks at the site.
The application envisages that the site of the GWL wind farm will be abandoned, but with its network of 70 turbine foundations – large concrete cubes – left intact and useless on the mountain top.
The GWL wind farm was built at an unstated cost in 2003 but it would cost in the order of €200 million to construct today. GWL – a wholly owned subsidiary of the ESB – intended the wind farm to function until 2040. It had a lease on the land where the wind farm is situated.
So, all the undisclosed capital cost of building the wind farm, and its planned partial demolition and disconnection from the national grid, is laid at the feet of taxpaying citizens.
The taxpayer has, in addition, already incurred liability for EU fines in the order of €20 million arising out of this debacle.
How did this all happen?
It seems that ESB/GWL did not carry out an appropriate environmental impact assessment (EIA) back at the beginning. Nor did the county council require one.
No adequate consideration, it seems, was given to the potential impact of a peat slide risk occasioned by the construction works.
As a result, excavation material for the large concrete foundation plinth for Turbine 68 was deposited on adjoining blanket peat, apparently occasioning a peat slide down a small valley on the site. That resulted in 250,000 cubic metres (approximately the volume of 100 Olympic swimming pools) of peat sliding downslope and some of it polluting a small river, killing an estimated 50,000 brown trout, and causing temporary peat pollution to a small lake used as a local water source.
The European Commission then brought proceedings against Ireland for the inadequacy of our EIA regime enforcement and eventually started fining Ireland for failing to deal with the resultant damage caused by the peat slide.
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GWL applied to An Bord Pleanála for retrospective retention of the wind farm, and after an exhaustive process the board’s inspector recommended that GWL be granted retrospective retention. His reasoning was impeccable in law and common sense.
Alas, somehow convinced that allowing GWL to retain the wind farm would be invalid in EU law because the environmental damage done was irreversible, the board overruled its own inspector, and went on to effectively decide that the entire wind farm was an unlawful development that needed demolition.
Imagine a similar decision had been arrived at on similar EIA grounds – say, in the case of a motorway toll bridge scheme in France – would the commission or the Court of Justice have demanded its demolition? Or would they be content to allow the bridge to stand provided the toll bridge developer did not thereby profit? It is hard to imagine that such a ridiculous demolition would be ordered.
But instead of punishing the ESB by depriving GWL of its wind farm, Ireland allowed the ESB to operate the wind farm until the planning board’s wrong-headed refusal of retention. And now the whole wind farm is to be demolished, less the large foundations. We lose a vast amount of taxpayer money – and renewable energy for 30,000 homes.
Instead of accepting a legally sound Seanad Bill to preserve the wind farm for the public, while depriving the ESB of its ownership and investment, the last government chose to ensure that the Bill was voted down last year.
Why must we lose €200 million in today’s value and the loss of alternative energy for 30,000 homes?
On no sane view – even of EU law – could demolition of the Derrybrien wind farm be justified.
