Tag Archives: Slieve Callan

THE company behind the 29-turbine Slieve Callan windfarm is offering grants totalling more than €1.5 million to the four communities close to the development, The Clare Champion has learned. Miltown Malbay, Kilmurry Ibrickane, Kilmaley and Inagh-Kilnamona are each to receive €100,000 of the proposed grants before the end of this year, while the remainder will be paid in instalments for up to 25 years. The developers committed to provide the funding in their planning application. Parishes will receive €20,000 a year for the first five years; €10,250 a year for the next 15 years and €5,000 annually for the last five years. Each parish is to receive approximately €378,000 from the developers, adding up to €1.515m. Public meetings were due to be held in Miltown, Inagh and Quilty on Wednesday night to address how best the money should be spent. Kilmaley Meitheal (Community Development Group) met on Tuesday night, while Kilmaley GAA Club is to hold a meeting next Monday …

NEW windfarm developments in Clare may be blown off course by High Court challenges, after a group of West Clare residents became the first local opposition group to secure leave for a Judicial Review to overturn planning approval for a local windfarm. High Court Judge Marie Bake has granted members of the Coore/Shanaway Residents Group, represented by Kathleen Connelly, leave to seek a judicial teview of An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant planning permission for four 85m wind turbines in the Miltown Malbay area, on 10 grounds. The successful application for a Judicial Review was taken by resident Kathleen Connelly, the respondent was An Bord Pleanála, while the notice parties were Clare County Council and McMahon Finn Wind Acquisitions Limited. A spokesman for An Bord Pleanála said the board received the legal papers on Tuesday and has begun work on its response but it is only at the initial stages as yet. Efforts by The Clare Champion to obtain a …

CLARE County Council plans to facilitate the development of Pumped Freshwater Hydro Energy Storage facilities in the county, similar to those already developed at Turlough Hill in County Wicklow. Three locations – Slieve Callan, Slieve Bernagh and Woodcock Hill in Meelick – have been marked as “indicative areas” for the proposed facilities, which are outlined in the newly developed Draft Clare County Renewable Energy Strategy. Commenting on the proposal to facilitate the development of PFHES facilities in the county, senior planner, Gordon Daly said such technology was “relatively underutilised in Ireland but presented significant potential for the domestic renewables sector”. Clare County Council is one of the first local authorities in the country to seek to incorporate such a renewable energy strategy into their County Development Plan. Mr Daly explained that a pumped hydroelectric energy scheme is a mechanical device for storing energy, consisting of two large reservoirs located at different elevations, typically between 200m to 300m, and a number …