RWE Renewables Ireland Limited had applied to An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la for permission to develop an 11-turbine project near Shinrone in Tipperary and Birr in Offaly.<\/p>\n
The proposed Ballincor Wind Farm was expected to generate 222,591 megawatt hours of electricity annually \u2013 enough to power up to 45,000 homes.<\/p>\n
The application was made directly to An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la as the proposal was considered a strategic infrastructure development, which can bypass the council\u2019s planning section and go straight to the national planning board.<\/p>\n
According to planning files, Ballincor Wind Farm would be situated on lands in both Tipperary and Offaly that were deemed unsuitable for new wind farm developments by both county councils.<\/p>\n
However, an agent for RWE Renewables said that while strategic infrastructure developments can be considered according to county development plans, An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la is \u201cnot required to make decisions that are consistent with it,\u201d and can grant planning permission even if the development contravenes the local county development plan.<\/p>\n
A section of Tipperary County Council\u2019s development plan says that wind farm developments can be considered for land that is deemed unsuitable on a case-by-case basis, as long as they comply with the policies and development management standards set out in the council\u2019s wind energy strategy.<\/p>\n
The land for the proposed wind farm is currently used as agricultural land, forestry and cutaway bog, which could continue even with a wind farm on the site.<\/p>\n
The project would help Ireland to reduce its carbon emissions, and would help the country meet its emissions targets as set by the European Union, the agent added.<\/p>\n
According to RWE Renewables\u2019 agent, if planning permission were to be granted for the wind farm development, the company would set up a community benefit fund, to the tune of \u20ac472,000.<\/p>\n
The fund would would aim to \u201c generate real tangible benefits for the local community who may not have a direct involvement in the project,\u201d according to the agent.<\/p>\n
However, the planning application was withdrawn by the applicant just three days after it was lodged.<\/p>\n
It is not known why the developer has moved to withdraw the application, or if they intend to lodge it again in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The company is currently pursuing other wind farm developments in Sligo, Galway, Waterford and Clare.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RWE Renewables Ireland Limited had applied to An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la for permission to develop an 11-turbine project near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,246,61,60,10668],"class_list":["post-421967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-katie-odonovan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}