Ireland’s first solar farm under the Government’s Small-Scale Renewable Energy Support Scheme (SRESS) has commenced operation.
Flogas, a DCC Energy plc company, has announced it is partnering with Meadhill Solar Farm.
The 650kW facility in Meadstown, Kildorrery, Co Cork, features more than 1,000 solar panels across 1.5 acres and generates enough electricity to power 150 local households annually, the company said.
It was independently developed by farmer Sean Keating and installed by PV Generation.
Flogas said it will provide a long-term route to market for the renewable electricity generated by the farm through a 15-year power purchase agreement.
“Our role is to provide the commercial certainty that gives projects like this a route to market and helps unlock the investment needed to bring them forward,” said managinf director of Flogas Energy, Ken O’Byrne.
“We see significant potential for this model to support more farmers, SMEs and independent renewable developers across rural Ireland.”
SRESS was launched last year and covers projects that produce between 50kW and 6MW of electricity.
It guarantees payments for the electricity produced.
Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O’Brien, said that it’s “an important part of our strategy to increase renewable electricity generation across Ireland”.
“As Ireland works towards our climate and renewable energy targets, projects like this will have an important role to play in expanding our renewable generation capacity and supporting a more sustainable energy system.”
Farmer Sean Keating said he started working on the project in 2017 to “devirsify the farm’s income”.
He added that “bringing it to life required significant work across planning, the ESB grid connection and financing”.