Concern over Erris blackouts despite high volume of wind turbines in region
The Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council has said there continues to be concerns in Erris over the number of wind farms developed or planned for development for the region.
Cllr Sean Carey made his comments during a discussion on the local authority’s new draft renewable strategy that aims to guide Mayo’s transition to renewable energy.
381MW of wind energy is generated in Mayo, 108MW of which is generated by turbines in the Belmullet Municipal District with a further 16MW already contracted by Eirgrid and another 74MW permitted but not yet contracted in the region.
Cllr Carey said despite several wind farms being in operation in the area, there are frequent power outages in Erris.
“In Erris, we lost power last Thursday night around 11pm after there was a bit of a strong breeze,” he said.
“In the area we have a lot of wind projects and that always causes concerns with locals that we have too many going up. There are concerns over noise and over construction planned to be taking place.” He added there are also concerns over wind farms being planned close to Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).
Cllr Johnny O’Malley said he could not understand why it was taking so long to harness more wind energy within the county and added that if objections continue to hold up these processes, areas should be identified for wind farm developments or they should be placed offshore.
“Objections are an obstacle but as a local authority we should be fit to pick areas where you’d get no objections,” he said.
“There really should be more in the sea but the reality is, no matter where you put them, someone is going to see them.”
In response to this query about offshore energy, Acting Senior Executive Planner with the Forward Planning section Enda Casey said developing offshore wind energy could be a gamechanger further down the line.
“The renewable energy from the ocean is endless, into the gigawatts but that is outside our control. It is governed by the Ocean Renewable Energy Development Plan but it is significant and it is going to come online in time,” he said.
