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An Bord Pleanála refused permission for 12 wind farms in 2024
Credit: Stephen Robb, Irish Farmers Journal, 20 January 2025, farmersjournal.ie ~~
Throughout 2024, An Bord Pleanála rejected planning applications for 12 wind farms, representing a total estimated combined capacity of 677MW.
Around 30 projects – totalling 1,598MW – were still awaiting a decision at the end of 2024.
The figures were released during the second day of Wind Energy Ireland’s annual conference in Dublin.
In its first annual planning report, the group stated that An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for 10 new wind farms with a combined capacity of 717MW over the year.
The group estimates that to achieve the 9,000MW of onshore wind energy by 2030, as outlined in the Climate Action Plan, An Bord Pleanála would have needed to approve 1,720MW during this period.
The industry welcomed the increase in the number of decisions made in 2024, which was up by 16% compared with 2023.
Best quarter in 2024
The annual figures follow particularly positive results in the fourth quarter (Q4) of last year.
The number of projects approved by An Bord Pleanála in Q4 2024 accounted for half of all wind energy projects that received planning permission in 2024, compared with only a single project in the third quarter.
Wind Energy Ireland CEO Noel Cunniffe said: “Before we can build new wind farms, we need to first get them through the planning system and we are simply not seeing enough new projects to enable us to reach our 2030 targets.
“An Bord Pleanála’s rate of granting planning permission for new wind farms increased significantly during the last quarter of 2024, with five wind farms receiving approval,” Cunniffe continued.
“But it is essential that the performance in Q4 of last year becomes the new normal, that we can maintain that pace of decision-making and even accelerate further in the months ahead,” he said.
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