Wind Power News: Ireland
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These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
€60m project offers on-site renewable energy for commercial electricity users
About €60 million is to be invested in 15 on-site wind turbine facilities for large commercial users of electricity over the next four years.
Construction on the first facility is expected to commence within the next few weeks as Wind Energy Direct Ltd (WED), a wholly Irish-owned renewable energy company, commences the launch of its unique concept “behind the meter” electricity.
The turnkey renewable energy source for manufacturing, retail and agricultural locations, that will be the first of its kind . . .
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Landslides a clear and present danger
It’s probably too much to expect, but, following the country’s latest landslide or bog overflow, county councils and An Bord Pleanála should have more regard for people living in susceptible areas.
Despite the concerns of people in Derrybrien, Co Galway, regarding a wind farm in their area, planning permission was granted for it by An Bord Pleanála. Residents’ worst fears came to pass when a landslide caused devastation in 2003. Fast forward to August, 2008, and a similar landslide involving . . .
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Kerry suffers from an ill wind
Locals in north Kerry are up in arms at the alleged role of a wind energy firm in the landslide that destroyed a river’s salmon and trout stocks.
Before the facts of what caused last week’s landslide in a north Kerry river network were known, a nearby wind energy firm taking the brunt of the local anger.
Prior to the landslide, Tralee-based company Tra Investments had begun site works for an eight-turbine wind farm in the Ballincollig Hill-Maghanknockane area.
Within . . .
Kerry devastated by mudslide
Countless millions of dollars of damage to property and wildlife was caused by the worst mudslide in Ireland in five years.
An estimated 3,000 salmon and sea trout were wiped out and their spawning grounds contaminated when liquid peat seeped into the Rivers Smearlagh and Feale in north-east Kerry.
More than 20 homes in a rural area between Tralee and Castleisland were cut off by a mudslide a mile and a half long and up to 75 yards wide last . . .
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Further Kerry landslides feared as salmon and sea trout toll put at 8,000
The landslide in Kerry last weekend killed at least 8,000 fish.
The full disclosure of the massive fish kill was made yesterday.
Shannon Regional Fisheries Board chief executive Eamon Cusack said the kill was “very serious”.
He feared further landslides at the site, at Kielduff near Tralee, as a lot of water was still lodged in the area.
The board was taking water samples and would, in the event of any evidence being found, use its powers of prosecution.
Compensation . . .
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Anger that windfarm got approval
A man-made disaster is how Maghanknockane landowner Tom Harrington is describing the weekend’s landslide, expressing the view that his worst fears about the construction of a windfarm in the area appear to have been realised.
Mr Harrington, who lives in Tralee and is now completely cut off from his land in the Maghanknockane area, is angry that objections to a proposed windfarm were overruled by An Bord Pleanála almost four years ago. Mr Harrington says concerns were raised by him, . . .
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Thousands of fish die in polluted rivers
The Shannon Regional Fisheries Board has warned that the weekend’s landslide at Maghanknockane could cause an ecological disaster in the Feale catchment area if any more peat from the bog-burst enters the River Smearlagh.
The board said the landslide poses a serious threat to salmon and sea trout and their spawning grounds in the Glashoreag River, a tributary of the River Smearlagh.
Thousands of mature and juvenile trout and salmon have already been killed as a result of the landslide . . .
Locals believe windfarm is linked to bog slide disaster; Objections to windfarm pointed out landslide risk
Devastated residents affected by the weekend’s landslide on the Stacks Mountains believe there could be a link between the massive bog burst on Saturday and construction work which began two weeks ago at a nearby windfarm.
Work began at Ballincollig Hill in the Maghanknockane area of Lyreacrompane just a number of weeks ago with the construction of roadways into the windfarm site. Locals say that while rainfall may well be a contributory factor, they feel that there may also . . .
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Wind farms and landslides
Landslides like that at Maghanknockane, Co Kerry will happen again and again unless local authorities and An Bord Pleanála appreciate the process by which wind farm construction can cause such damage.
The boglands on the hills take thousands of years to form and once they slide away they are irreplaceable. What happens is as follows:
1. The bogs on the hills are formed by rotting heather over thousands of years, but they are finely held together by the . . .
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Two investigations to take place into Kerry landslide
Two separate investigations are being carried out into the cause of the landslide in the Stacks mountains between Tralee and Listowel at the weekend.
Meanwhile, fears continue about the water supply for up to 30,000 residents of the northeast Kerry region.
Tra Investments Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lee Strand Co-operative Creamery in Tralee that had begun site works for an eight-turbine wind farm in the Ballincollig Hill–Maghanknockane area, said that it had instructed geotechnical consultancy AGEC Ltd . . .
Complete story (plus email and print links) »
