As part of my work in the Bord I did a small bit of research into the whole area of all the wind turbine applications that passed through the boards doors. The idea was to identify the main issues that crop up in all the planning appeals.

All cases which involved wind turbines were identified. Below is a map of all the granted applications by the Bord since 1998 for applications involving 6 turbines or more:

Link to the Larger Map (Pls note some of the geolocated points are in the wrong location these will be fixed in time)

By the Numbers

In total 1530 turbines were applied for, only 872 were granted permission on appeal.

The county with the greatest number of turbines with permission is Mayo with 216 turbines, the majority of which are part of the Bellacorrick wind farm.

Next week I will dig a little deeper into the data that I gathered on our windfarms and detail some of the main issues considered during the assessment of these applications including links to the spreadsheets containing the data. However until then, the big question is just how many of these have been built?

As always!

Comments are welcome, you can follow me on the tweet machine @Rusty1052. Only want the blog? Subscribe to the RSS Feed with your favorite reader!

Related posts:

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2. Go-ahead for Bord na Móna €120m wind farm
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Proposed Incinerator location (Indaver Ireland)

An Bord Pleanla has refused planning permission by direction today for the proposed amended Waster to Energy Hazardous Waste Plant (for you and me an incinerator).

I can’t seem to find the direction on the Bord’s website yet however the original bord file can be found here.

As the application was considered strategic infrastructure it has its own website: www.ringaskiddywastetoenergy.ie

This post will be update when the conditions for refusal become available. But one can safely assume as part of the EIS, Indavor could not mitigate against the concerns raised in relation to flooding and emissions.

Below is the article from the irish times on the news:

An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission to Indaver Ireland for a proposed €150 million twin incinerator project in Cork harbour.

An Bord Pleanála signed off on the decision yesterday for the proposal for the Ringaskiddy site and communicated the decision to the various parties today.

Indaver Ireland had originally applied for planning permission for a 100,000 tonne hazardous waste incinerator, a 140,000 tonnes municipal waste incinerator and a transfer station.

In January 2010, Bord Pleánala refused planning for the municipal waste incinerator but said it was considering granting planning for the hazardous waste incinerator and the transfer station.

It said Indaver should make some changes to its environmental impact statement to address concerns over flooding, coastal erosion and revised emissions.

In May 2010, Indaver reduced the size of the buildings by 40 per cent while retaining the same capacity while it also made changes so water would be recycled rather than discharged.

Environmental group Chase has campaigned against the project saying the proposed site is unsuitable due to risk of flooding and erosion.

During a four-week oral hearing in May and June 2009, the group also questioned the need for the facility and expressed concern about its impact on public health in the harbour area.

IrishTimes - BARRY ROCHE

As always folks comments are welcome, you can follow me on the tweet machine @Rusty1052. Only want the blog? Subscribe to the RSS Feed with your favorite reader! Finally, Rest in Peace Mr. Brian Lenhian.

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For those of you unaware, datacenters are huge users of energy and generate huge amounts of heat from all the servers. Google does not release figures on just how much energy its uses in its datacenters, some sort of issue as regards competition but it has indeed bought the guts of the 100 mW farm in Iowa.

Given that we are striving to be a knowledge economy and one of the trunk international cables makes european land fall here and sure google are here anyway, maybe we could do a deal and get them to locate a major datacenter here and maybe fund a chunk of the Arklow bank off-shore farm to power it?

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Map: AIRO - Ghost Estates Map

SOME 180 unfinished or “ghost” housing estates have been abandoned by their developers, according to new figures submitted by local authorities around the State to the Department of the Environment.

The department is to release €5 million to county and city councils in the coming weeks to deal with the most urgent public safety issues in these estates, including open manholes and excavations, unsecured construction sites and incomplete or inadequate sewerage systems.

Addressing an advisory seminar for local authority officials yesterday, Minister of State for Housing Willie Penrose said it was “totally unacceptable” for estates to be left in this condition coming into the summer months as the vacant properties were a “natural magnet” for children.

The 180 developer-abandoned estates represent just over half of the ghost estates identified as being in need of urgent attention by a government report last February.

The report of the Advisory Group on Unfinished Housing Developments singled out some 350 estates, representing almost 8,000 houses, where there was less than 50 per cent occupancy and partially finished or vacant housing, which posed safety hazards for residents.

The local authorities were then asked to assess the report and identify which estates had been abandoned by developers, with no receivers appointed.

These 180 are now categorised as most in need of intervention to resolve their safety problems as the local authorities have been unable to get any developer, site owner or other party to take responsibility for their condition.

While local authorities would be funded to tackle public safety hazards, “irresponsible developers” who had abandoned estates and “their funders” would be made to honour their obligations, Mr Penrose said.

“Any expenditure approved by my department must be ultimately recouped from the existing or future owners and developers of such sites in order to protect the public purse.”

In addition to the estates which represented a danger to public safety, more than 2,000 other unfinished or substantially vacant estates have been identified nationally. Where houses were complete and in a livable condition, “positive uses”, including their leasing or purchase from Nama, would be considered, Mr Penrose said.

“There are surplus units in parts of the country. In many of those areas, there are households on waiting lists in need of good quality housing.”

Mr Penrose said he intended to establish and chair a national co-ordination group which would oversee the work of local authorities in resolving the key problems in unfinished developments. The details of the 180 estates would also be sent to Nama, he added.

IrishTimes – Olivia Kelly

Related posts:

1. Cuffe backs demolition of some ‘ghost’ estates
2. Ghost estates mess is fault of council chiefs, insists Cuffe
3. Bag’o Links “Independence Day”, Chinese ghost estates and more…

Maybe for the council it might be worth looking at the contract and supplying the incinerator due to become operational at Carranstown in Meath later this year. It’s been granted a license to dispose of 150,000 tonnes of waster a year. The facility is owned and to be operated by Indaver Ireland.

Image: copyright Indaver.com

One final question I would really like to know the answer to is when will the Minister grant permission for foreshore license so construction on the Poolbeg waste to energy plant can get under way!? Also why not deal with the waste at source and not truck it all the way to Meath and get on with building the incinerator at Poolbeg?

SOME 25,000 tonnes of Dublin’s household waste is to be sent to landfill sites in Louth and Offaly following the closure of a Cavan dump operated by private waste company Oxigen.

The company has decided to close its operations at the landfill in Corranure, Co Cavan, four months after being awarded a contract by Dublin County Council to dispose of the capital’s household waste at the site.

Landfill operations will cease within the next month. Dublin City Council said it understands the waste will instead go to landfill sites at Whiteriver, Dundalk, Co Louth, and Derryclure in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

The decision has been taken following signals from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) it intended to refuse a licence for the operation of the Corranure site.

The city council last November awarded contracts to Oxigen and Bord na Móna, worth about €10 million, to take almost 150,000 tonnes of Dublin waste following the closure of Arthurstown, the last municipal landfill serving the region. The Arthurstown landfill, the dump used for most of Dublin’s waste, was about 4km over the county border with Kildare, but was owned and operated by South Dublin County Council.

Dublin City Council had anticipated the end of the capital’s landfill capacity for more than a decade but had envisaged that the Poolbeg incinerator would be up and running by now. Work on the incinerator began in December 2009, but has been suspended since last May.

……

Irish Times – Closure of Cavan dump sends capitals waste to Louth, Offaly sites

As always comments are welcome!

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“In many decisions in the past An Bord Pleanála has been a shining beacon.  However this latest decision represents a further nail in the coffin of proper Regulation in Ireland.  It highlights that poor planning, which was at the heart of Ireland’s banking failure and consequent economic collapse, continues to be a major issue.  An Bord Pleanála is the independent body appointed to decide on major planning matters.  An Taisce believes that in this decision, the Board has failed to properly take account of the legislative requirements of the Habitats, Birds and Environmental Impact Assessment Directives and An Taisce detailed such issues in its substantial submissions made to the Board.  This grant of approval flies in the face of a number of European Court of Justice Rulings and indeed sets the Board up as contending it has more insight into the law than the Supreme Court of Ireland, on matters such as the integrity of Natura 2000 sites.”
Chair of An Taisce Charles Stanley-Smith – “Corrib Gas Pipeline Decision legally flawed” An Taisce

Below the article as written by Lorna Siggins in the Irish Times today:

AN TAISCE intends to seek a judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s approval for the final section of the Corrib gas pipeline.

The environmental organisation’s chairman Charles Stanley-Smith believes the board’s ruling last week was “legally flawed”, and may have “major implications for the status of implementing European directives in Ireland”, including the habitats directive.

An Taisce’s view is supported by the Environmental Pillar of Social Partnership, involving a number of non-governmental organisations.

The board approved the final section of gas pipeline through a special area of conversation, Sruwadaccon estuary, with 58 conditions. The decision was welcomed by Shell EP Ireland, the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (Ibec), the Pro-Gas Mayo Group and the Erris local contractors’ association, involving businesses which have benefited from the project to date.

However, it was criticised by community group Pobal Chill Chomáin, Shell to Sea and An Taisce.

An Bord Pleanála inspector Martin Nolan said the new route plan would not put the public at risk, and would have a “remarkably light impact on the pristine environment of the area”.

Work cannot begin before issuing of a foreshore licence, and approval of consents under the Petroleum and Gas Acts, by the Ministers for the Environment and Energy respectively. Under planning legislation, groups have eight weeks to file a judicial review of the board’s ruling.

Both the Environmental Pillar and Shell to Sea have expressed fears that such consents could be “fast-tracked” before the general election, due to the weekend resignations of Eamon Ryan and John Gormley, the two Green Party deputies holding these portfolios….

The Irish Times

Although I am still not convinced that the Bord acted in a manner that was ultra vires to its powers. However only the judicial review and time will tell! Comments as always.

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Bord Pleanála has approved Shell E&P Ireland’s third proposed route for the final section of the Corrib gas pipeline with 58 conditions.

Inspector Martin Nolan, who chaired last year’s resumed oral hearing on the revised plan, says that the application’s “clarity and transparency” provides “confidence that the safety of the public is fully protected, and that the public will not be put at risk”.

He said this new plan submitted by Shell and partners last year was the “most suitable, the shortest and the most obvious route for this development”.

The route involves constructing a 4.2m-wide tunnel in Sruwaddacon estuary for a pipe carrying high pressure raw gas from the landfall at Glengad. The final section will run overland to the gas terminal already completed at Ballinaboy.

The offshore pipeline has already been laid.

Sruwaddacon estuary is a special area of conservation (SAC), running between the communities of Rossport, Pollathomas, Glengad and Aughoose. Among the groups which made submissions to Bord Pleanála on health and safety issues was the local national school at Pollathomas

Mr Nolan said the development was a “major project by any measure”, but the modifications proposed would have a “remarkably light impact on the pristine environment of the area”.

A previous application submitted by Shell and Corrib gas partners was rejected by Bord Pleanála as half of it was deemed unacceptable on safety grounds due to proximity to housing.

Mr Nolan said the board’s decision to “adopt a consequence based routing distance was a key driver” which “provided the impetus for Shell to moderate the consequence of a gas release” from the pipeline.

“Corrib will, I have no doubt, provide impetus for future expansion of the natural gas network in Ireland and I expect it will provide impetus for additional exploration off the coast,” Mr Nolan said. “Corrib will in my view provide opportunity for Mayo in particular to develop as a new energy producing centre.”

However, he said that new momentum was required to “engage the local community and to ensure the benefits of the scheme are developed and harnessed locally”.

He has recommended that an €8.5 million “community gain investment fund” be paid over five years by Shell and partners, which would be held in trust by Mayo County Council.

He said he believed this fund would “provide a strong enabling community gain which can be developed with leadership at every level into a long term economic and social stimulus for the area locally, but regionally as well”.

He praised Government policy on developing gas energy, but said that “further strategic planning” was required if “the depths of controversy and conflict seen in the Corrib scheme are to be avoided in future”.

“Standards, strategic development sites, strategic corridors, clear process requirements for all consents, open procedures for decision making, transparency in presentation of projects” were areas which had “led to the depth of conflict and controversy seen in the Corrib scheme”, Mr Nolan said.

Irish Times – LORNA SIGGINS, Western Correspondent

Related posts:

1. Planning board defers key Corrib pipeline decision
2. An Taisce says Shell approval ‘legally flawed’
3. Proposed route for Corrib pipeline unsafe, Shell told

Image: IrishTimes

It is very difficult to see such an amazing bird so recklessly poisoned. Any other country the people responsible would more than likely be in jail. Surely there is someway to prevent this form happening to yet more of our re introduction programmes!

A WHITE-TAILED sea eagle released into the Killarney National Park last summer as part of an ambitious five-year reintroduction programme from Norway, has been found to have been poisoned near Glencar in the foothills of the Macgillycuddy Reeks.

It is the ninth eagle poisoned in the sheep farming area of the Reeks which extends west of Killarney and includes the river Laune and Beaufort area. Another eagle was shot in the vicinity.

The latest poisoning comes despite strict legislation banning poisoned bait to control foxes introduced in October after an outcry by conservation groups and representatives of Norway over the spate of poisonings in the spring.

Last May the Norwegian ambassador to Ireland, Öyvind Nordsletten, expressed his outrage at the continued use of meat bait to poison animals and birds.

The female, which was found on December 11th last, died from high concentrations of liver fluke drug, the State laboratory has concluded.

This was probably from meat bait left out to poison foxes and grey crows, a practice that is now “unequivocally illegal and totally unacceptable” under recent legislation, those involved in the project said yesterday.

Gardaí are investigating and are understood to be following a definite line of inquiry.

Some 77 eagles were brought to Ireland from Norway as part of an ambitious reintroduction programme that began in 2007. A total of 15 have have since died, 10 of them in Kerry.

The scientist in charge of the project, Dr Allan Mee, said the practice of using poisoned meat bait had been banned outright from October. The legislation was unequivocal and fines of up to €5,000 may now be imposed on conviction.

Writes: Anna Lucey in The Irish Times

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The use of wind generated electricity in the Republic grew by 28 per cent on average, each year between 2005 and 2009, according to a new report from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

According to the report Energy in Ireland overall renewable energy, which includes biomass such as wood chip boilers and biofuels for transport, grew by 15 per cent overall each year during the period.

The increase in the use of renewable energy sources, in addition to the decline in economic activity also resulted in a fall of energy-related CO2 emissions of more then 10 per cent in 2009.

Significantly the report also found the new vehicle registration tax and road tax systems had resulted in a dramatic increase in consumers choosing more fuel efficient vehicles in the A and B label bands. The report found some 80 per cent of new cars bought in the first 11 months of 2010 were A and B label vehicles up from 25 per cent prior to the new tax band introduction.

The report also shows that overall energy use declined by 9 per cent in 2009, with sectors such as industry at 13 per cent, services at 12 per cent and transport at 10 per cent witnessing the greatest fall.

Launching the report, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan said he was “encouraged” to see that “contrary to some perceptions, Ireland’s position in terms of energy prices relative to the rest of Europe continues to improve, with prices for many consumers now below the EU average.”

Minister Ryan added that by continuing to reduce energy wastage in homes and businesses, and by making much fuller use of natural energy resources, “we can dramatically improve our competitiveness, our energy security and reduce our exposure to volatile fuel prices.”

The report can be accessed on SEAI’s website: www.seai.ie/statistics

IrishTimes – Tim O’Brien

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It’s been a while since i posted something so will keep it brief; busy, busy, busy! Well there you have it yet another piece of our major infrastructure upgrades is continuing at a pace. More information on the project can be found on the Eirgrid website: East – West InterConnector Project

TIM O’BRIEN

EIRGRID HAS said it intends to go ahead within weeks with the installation of the €600 million East-West Interconnector at Rush in north Co Dublin.

Eirgrid was granted permission by An Bord Pleanála last year to make a landfall for the cable at the town’s North Beach. The cable, which links to Wales, is to be routed through the village in a plastic duct buried a metre below the street surface.

However, the plan has come under opposition from locals in the Rush area, citing health and safety concerns. While work began elsewhere in July, the scheduled start in Rush was postponed.

Discussions have taken place with residents on details of the installation of the cable and on financial investment by Eirgrid in facilities in the Rush area.

In August, responding to concerns expressed by Rush Community Council, Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan asked Eirgrid to re-examine the route.

However, the company yesterday posted leaflets to houses in the area announcing work would begin towards the end of the month.

According to the company, 15 per cent of the 46km route in Ireland has been put in place and work was proceeding to meet the 2012 deadline for the cable being operational.

The announcement of the start came just days after international health expert Dr Eric van Rongen rejected fears that the interconnector posed health risks. Dr van Rongen’s remarks were made in a report commissioned by the Department of Energy.

“There are no indications that exposure to the static magnetic fields generated by the high-voltage, direct-current cable will in any way adversely affect human health, neither through acute nor through long-term effects,” Dr van Rongen said. “The risk associated with this exposure can be considered to be as close to zero as possible.”

A spokeswoman for Eirgrid said the company had looked at other options over four months but none was feasible.

It said routing the cable away from Rush through the nearby Rogerstown estuary was not possible as Rogerstown was a designated Natura 2000 site. EU guidelines set down that any project having a significantly negative effect on such a site “may only be authorised in the absence of alternative solutions”.

IrishTimes

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