THERE are, once again, fears that the unspoilt beauty that is synonymous with one of Ireland’s most beloved tourist destinations could be endangered.
A windfarm company which was previously refused planning permission for a seven-turbine project near the world-famous Gougane Barra, appears to be seeking a smaller version at the same location.
The Lissarda-based company will explain its intentions at a meeting in Ballingeary next week, but it is expected to say it wants to erect three wind turbines in the townlands of Curraglass and Dereendonee.
Cork County Council refused planning for the larger scheme in 2020.
However, that decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála who overturned that decision, and granted planning two years later.
This was despite the recommendations of its own senior planner, who made reference to the visual impacts of the proposed large turbines at the ‘highly sensitive location’.
But after a group of well-organised locals started a high profile campaign to oppose the development, and sought a High Court judicial review into the application, the plan died a death.
An Bord Pleanála didn’t contest the review, which had the effect of quashing the original decision to grant permission.
This was confirmed some time later by An Bord Pleanala.
And yet, now just over two years later, there are fears the community could be experiencing something of a ‘groundhog day’.
Locals are awaiting next week’s meeting to see exactly what the current plan is.
Developers Wingleaf, in letters to local homeowners, have acknowledged that the potential visual impact on the area of natural beauty was a factor in the failed attempt to build a windfarm in the past.
They say their new plan is a much-reduced version of what was originally proposed in 2020.
But all of this is happening against a background of an energy-price and energy-generation crisis.
We saw the horrific effects of a breakdown in electricity supply when the west of Ireland bore the brunt of Storm Eowyn recently and many homes were almost three weeks without power.
Some homeowners said the trauma matched, or exceeded, that experienced during the recent pandemic.
But such outages may become more commonplace – and not just due to the increasing regularity of violent storms, but also due to the pressure on the national grid.
In 2023 Eirgrid warned of power outages due to stress on the national network.
It even suggested that data centres – which consume up to a third of all the power generated in this country – may have their power cut off, if supplies came under severe strain that winter.
In the end, that didn’t come to pass, but with little progress since on power generation options in this country, it is surely just a matter of time before homes go ‘dark’ due to a shortage of available power.
As a result, the country is scrambling to find ways of generating that much-needed power.
Being an island on the northwest corner of Europe, taking the full force of the wind coming in from the Atlantic, windfarms are an obvious solution.
But they are not universally welcomed, especially when proposed for controversial locations like the stunning lakeside Gougane Barra.
Offshore wind energy has been mooted as the acceptable face of wind generation, but it is not without its detractors, either.
And even without the visual impact, the fact that the Republic of Ireland still has no harbour port able to accept the massive infrastructure needed to service the construction and maintenance needs of offshore windfarms, means this option is still a way off.
There are many observers who cannot understand why uninhabited offshore islands are not being investigated as an option that would combine both methods of windfarming.
Others say the cost of such a strategy would render it financially unviable.
Whatever the solution, we are all agreed: we need one, now.
So it may be time that those invested in powering up Ireland for decades to come worked a little bit harder in the short-term to find a long-term remedy that will do the least damage, to either our landscape, seascape, or the public goodwill.
