Planned Mayo wind farm is 'unsuitable' under new energy strategy

All 13 turbines proposed as part of the Muingmore Wind Farm in North Mayo are located on lands deemed unsuitable for wind energy development under Mayo County Council’s newly adopted Renewable Energy Strategy (RES).

The issue was raised at the October meeting of the council’s Enterprise and Economic Development Strategic Policy Committee (SPC), where senior executive planner Martin McNamara updated members on the RES.

Adopted on July 13th last, the new strategy is being used to assess renewable energy planning applications submitted in Mayo.

However, Mr McNamara explained that two elements of the strategy remain subject to review by the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR), following disagreements over recommendations made by the office. These concern a proposed one-kilometre buffer around settlements and the possibility of carrying out a new landscape character appraisal for the county.

Councillors opposed the OPR’s recommendation to remove the buffer and argued that a new landscape character appraisal was unnecessary, as the existing appraisal remains relevant because the landscape has not changed.

“The OPR have notified us that the elements we fought back on, the buffer and the landscape character, those aren’t in place until the OPR do their review. There is no timeframe on that, but when I last spoke to them they said it is imminent,” Mr McNamara explained.

He also outlined the changes to the wind energy strategy map in the RES, which identifies areas considered either suitable or unsuitable for wind farm development.

“In the new [map], the majority of North Mayo is considered unsuitable. Lands that are open for consideration are located primarily to the east and southeast of the county,” he said.

In response to concerns raised by Cllr Michael Loftus about wind farm applications in the Ballycastle area and near the Céide Fields, Mr McNamara confirmed that these locations fall within areas classified as unsuitable under the RES.

The Muingmore Wind Farm is among the developments being assessed against the new strategy.

RWE Renewables Ireland is proposing to develop a 13-turbine wind farm with a capacity of up to 86MW on approximately 455 hectares of land, around 4km north of Geesala and 11km west of Bangor Erris.

Because the proposed development exceeds the 25MW threshold for local authority planning applications, it is considered a Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) and is submitted directly to An Coimisiún Pleanála for assessment.

Mr McNamara explained that the local authority’s role is limited to providing advice and comments to the planning board.

“That is an SID as it is over the threshold for a local authority to deal with. The board are dealing with it, then we as a local authority are offered the opportunity to provide a consultation response to them. Our response is on the agenda for Monday for councillors to consider,” he said.

The council’s 46-page SID report on the proposed Muingmore development assesses the application against the new RES and finds that all 13 turbines would be located on lands classified as unsuitable for wind energy development.

​Mayo County Council is advising the planning board to ‘give full consideration to the potential adverse impacts the proposed development might have’.

​ “While Mayo County Council remains committed to supporting Ireland's transition to a low-carbon economy and achieving national renewable energy targets, the Renewable Energy Strategy (RES) for County Mayo emphasises that renewable energy development must be appropriately located and balanced with the protection of the county's environmental, cultural, heritage, landscape and tourism assets,” the report states.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.