Green light for Cork’s first solar energy site
Cork County Council approved planning to Reeve Wave Ltd in Lissarda, Co Cork, for a solar PV panel array consisting of up to 5400sq m of solar panels on ground-mounted steel frames and associated site works at Ballytrasna near Macroom.
The development is earmarked for the headquarters site of Enerco Energy, a company mainly associated with windfarm developments.
The site will accommodate about 0.7MW through 2,690 panels of a maximum height of 3.5m to primarily provide electricity to Enerco headquarters and possibly supply surplus energy through the grid to the ESB in the future.
Residents in the rural setting highlighted concerns and pointed to a lack of planning guidelines, in particular as the project did not require an Environmental Impact Statement despite its scale and its location close to the Lee Valley Reservoir.
Ten submissions, one with 31 signatures, have been received from residents, including neighbours either side of the 4.4-acre site, just off the N22, the main Cork-Killarney road. One resident with a pacemaker device has concerns about the lack of electromagnetic interference regulations, while other fears include health and safety, glint and glare for motorists, drainage, tourism impacts, and biodiversity.
Residents further said that the scale of the project merited public consultation.
The promoters, meanwhile, said they have no immediate start date for the project. Enerco said there was potential for its company in the area of solar energy and described the project as a “pilot” or “experiment”.
“We’re exploring at the moment,” a spokesperson said, claiming it had been the first application in Cork so far.
The deadline for appealing to An Bord Pleanála is March 11.
