165-hectare solar farm planned for lands beside proposed power plant

Plans for a 400 acre solar farm outside Kentstown in the same locality where residents are currently fighting a planned gas-fired peaking power plant, are due to be submitted to Meath County Council this month.

Residents living in the vicinity of the proposed Curraghtown Solar Farm recently received correspondence from Highfield Solar Farm Ltd informing them that the company intends to submit a planning application for a solar farm on lands at Curraghtown, Veldonstown, Flemingstown and Kentstown. The development would extend to approximately 165ha over a number of landholdings and would generate enough electricity each year to power approximately 22,000 homes.

The solar farm would be connected to the grid via a new substation on the development land and a separate planning application is to be submitted to An Coimisiún Pleanála for this pending confirmation that it constitutes a Strategic Infrastructural Development (SID).

The solar farm, if approved, would be operational for 35 years and afterwards would be decommissioned with the lands returned to their original state. As it is to be developed under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS), the information sent to residents outlined that a community benefit fund of approximately €186,000 a year would be available for local projects.

One of the reasons given by the company for choosing the location is the proximity to the existing transmission network citing the proximity to the Garballagh 110kV substation and the existing Deenes 110kV station. Other considerations given were the “limited environmental impacts including flood risk, ecology, landscape and visual impact, cultural heritage and archaeology, the sunlight intensity levels and the planning policy in the Meath County Development Plan.

A comment form inviting feedback by 5th September was included with the correspondence.

The proposed solar farm covers an extensive area and surrounds the site where Polarisgate Ltd was recently granted planning permission by Meath County Council for a controversial 180 MW gas-fired peaking power plant.

There was massive opposition in the locality to the Polarisgate project with 200 submissions made against the development. The Stop Kentstown Power Plant group was formed to fight the planning application and held several public meetings as well as a protest march last April.

Reacting to the Meath County Council's decision to grant planning permission last month, a spokesperson for the group said they were “deeply disappointed and shocked by Meath County Council's decision to grant permission for the power plant.

They indicated that they would be appealing the decision. Nine separate appeals have since been lodged with An Coimisiún Pleanála in relation to Meath County Council's granting of planning permission for the power plant. Among them are appeals by Meath East TDs Gillian Toole and Darren O'Rourke as well as a number of local residents.

News that a solar farm application is now being made has been unsettling for the local community who have highlighted that they already have the Knockharley Landfill in the area as well as a planned power plant and now a large scale solar farm is being proposed and there is a sense locally of ‘what next?’.

Eileen Costello Rawat who lives at Curraghtown told how both the applications concern lands located to the rear of her home and highlighted that both the solar farm and power plant would share the same proposed access road and concern some of the same landowners, though they are separate applications.

She expressed concerns about the concentration of solar farms in Meath and while fully supportive of the transition to renewable energy, feels there should be full consultation at community level on the impact such a large volume of solar farms has, particularly in terms of the loss of agricultural land and impact on food security in the long term.

“It’s not that I don’t think we don’t need more sustainable energy but it needs to be planned and managed rather than a knee jerk reaction without considering what the impact is on the community and county, if so much farmland moves to solar.”

She outlined how residents in proximity were notified about the solar farm at that same time that they were finalising objections to the power plant.

Eileen said she hopes that a consultation meeting will be held where the wider community will have a chance to speak to representatives of the developers and ask questions and that she hoped the letter sent to residents in the immediate vicinity wouldn't be the only consultation that takes place prior to the planning application being lodged.