Templederry\u2019s business manager Gregg Allen<\/a> said: \u201cOur plan isn\u2019t just to generate energy, but also to be a supplier of it as well.<\/p>\n\u201cOur wider goal is that other plants around the country would generate power, either from wind or solar panels, that we would then sell to customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
As shareholders in the first wind farm of its kind in Ireland, Mr Fogarty and his colleagues believed they were at the helm of what had promised to be a revolution in community-run renewable energy generation projects.<\/p>\n
Such schemes were widespread around Europe back in the 1990s and early 2000s, and there was a sense that a network of community-run schemes could take off in Ireland too.<\/p>\n
Mr Fogarty opened his address to the Oireachtas committee in 2019 by telling members that when he and his fellow shareholders set out to develop a community wind farm, they did not think it would take 12 years.<\/p>\n
Now, 20 years on from that initial idea, they did not think theirs would be the only community-owned wind farm in the country.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThat is a testament to the fact that the system is geared against community generation projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly seven years on, Templederry wind farm is still the only community wind farm in operation in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cAddressing the committee at the time was very much out of my comfort zone,\u201d he recalled. \u201cBut I thought it would make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the day, everyone seemed very positive and interested but little has changed since.<\/p>\n
\u201cTemplederry shouldn\u2019t be the only community-run wind farm in Ireland, but it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t quite put my finger on why exactly there are not more community projects like ours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do, however, suspect a lack of joined-up thinking at government level across the various departments involved may well have something to do with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI genuinely feel there is a lack of either urgency or enthusiasm for community-run renewable energy schemes in this country on the part of successive governments.<\/p>\n
\n Lots of other EU countries have them, but for some reason, we don\u2019t have them in Ireland.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is very much weighted in favour of the big companies and it can feel like the smaller wind farms with only two or three turbines are just basically a nuisance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Fogarty laughs when asked if anybody has managed to get enough in dividends to buy a Rolls Royce or a yacht in the south of France.<\/p>\n
\u201cA yacht with an out-board motor on Lough Derg would do nicely,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the moment, the best we can hope for is to hire one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is we have covered what we put in and much of the rest we get out of it is being put into other community-run schemes, to help them do what we have done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to see more people coming forward to set up community projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, I do think that until there is a will to co-ordinate government departments on issues like local wind power generation, or any other community-based energy projects, I don\u2019t know what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Fogarty agrees that what he and his shareholders are trying to do is impressive, but adds: \u201cIt\u2019s very impressive thinking, but there is no magic wand to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When John Fogarty addressed the Oireachtas joint committee on climate action in October 2019, he hoped his experience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1153,43095,185249,191786,2885,943,8858,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-602687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainability-renewables","tag-tipperary-news","tag-waterford-news","tag-climate-change","tag-cost-of-living","tag-energy-prices","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602687","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=602687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Entering](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5204152_16_articleinline_Paddy_SEEA_CEO_PaddyPhelan_1_.jpg\" "\\"Entering")
Entering the wind generation market is ‘hardly worth the effort unless you are a major multinational with a lot of finance and infrastructure behind you,’\u00a0 says Paddy Phelan, South East Energy AgencyCEO and a committee member of the Irish Wind Farmers Association. File picture<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5203840_20_articleinline_Wind-templederry-7.jpg\" "\\"The")
The two turbines of Templederry Wind Farm at Lisgarriff West, near Nenagh, Co Tipperary. Interreg Europe described the project, which began generating power in 2012, as ‘an inspiring example of community empowerment’.\u00a0\tPicture: Neil Michael<\/p>\n