This article is from page 16 of the 2010-01-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
THE Slieve Callan Wind Farm will generate more than €750,000 a year for the 30 farmers whose land could form part of the proposed de- velopment. According to documents lodged with Clare County Council last week, the proposed wind farm will generate at least €775,000 for the land owners – who will retain ownership of their land, as well as €40,000 to local community groups and €500,000 for Clare County Council.
This means over the first 20 years of the project the local landowners stand to gain more than €15 million while Clare County Council will benefit to the tune of €10 million.
The proposed development consists of 31 wind turbines, each 80 metres in height and with a three blade ro- tary blade with a diameter of 90 me- BKey
Should this project go ahead in it’s current form it would become the largest wind energy facility on the is- land of Ireland, dwarfing the overall output of the current largest, the Al- tahullion windfarm near Dungiven in Northern Ireland.
According to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with Clare County Council last week the plant has the ability to generate elec- tricity for 59,189 homes, or roughly the combined number of households in Clare and Limerick City.
This would mean that the entire site would produce roughly the same amount of electricity as the Ard-
nacrusha Hydroelectric plant, which is currently Ireland main source of green energy.
Construction on the site 1s likely to cost in excess of €200 million with more than 40 per cent of this outlay,
or €80 million to be spent in relation to on-site works. It is envisioned that in excess of 250 people will be em- ployed on site during the 18 months of construction.
According to the EIS, the declining population and low socio-economic standing of the Slievecallan study area make it the ideal spot for the de- velopment of such a large scale wind energy facility.
“The analysis of census data for the study area shows that population growth has been significantly lower here than at county and national lev- el, with population decline recorded between 2002 and 2006,” it says.
“Overall, the electoral division that make up the study area were catego- rised as being in the ‘20 per cent most extremely deprived’ and °*20 per cent somewhat deprived’ groupings.”