This article is from page 19 of the 2011-08-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
THE people of Clare will be given the opportunity to invest in the largest renewable energy project ever undertaken in Ireland through a local share issue being offered by the West Clare Renewable Energy (WCRE).
The co-op style company, which is made up of more than 30 local landowners, was yesterday granted planning permission to build a € 200 million wind farm in Mount Callan. According to company spokesperson Padraig Howard, the company has already been contacted by a number of international investment companies looking to bankroll the project but WCRE have decided to fund construction locally, as much as possible, by issuing a “local share” which would allow the people of West Clare to buy a stake in the company.
“We are very strongly of the opinion that we do not want to sell on the project to outside investors. We started this so that we could create jobs and as a resource for the wider community in west Clare,” he said.
“There will be debt on the project and we will be borrowing from investment funds and banks to get this off the ground but there will also be the chance for people to invest. We are hoping to put out a share offer for the local community and the wider community in west Clare that can buy into the project if they wish. If that happens then that will be absolutely fantastic, because that means that the return from the project will be shared among the wider community in west Clare.”
Construction work on the giant wind farm cannot begin until a connection to the national grid can be secured – something which could hold up the wind farm for up to five years.
“The next step is securing an offer of a grid connection from Airgrid and the Commission for Energy Regulation. That is a very slow and cumbersome process at the moment and we will have to wait for a number of years,” continued Padraig.
“The new government has promised to reform this process and speed it up – especially for projects who have a certain scale, have strong wind resources and are close to an existing grid connection – we tick all three of those boxes. So we are hopeful that we can get over the grid connection difficulty as quickly as possible.
“Without a firm grid connection offer we can only guess when we can start the process. But today is still a day to savour – we now know that this will go ahead sooner than later. We are anxious that this go ahead ASAP but we have been patient in the planning of this and we will continue to be patient.”
Mr Howard also thanked all the people of west Clare who had backed the project and also invited anyone who might have been against the planning permission being granted to further engagement on the progress of the wind farm.