AARON KENT
A residents’ group has claimed that Mid and West Waterford is being targeted by renewable energy companies willing to destroy communities to maximise their profits.
The group, High Road Solar Action Group, made the claims while protesting outside the Civic Offices in Dungarvan, ahead of the November Plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
The protest comes after recent efforts to develop solar farms and data centres in rural areas of Waterford, such as Portlaw and Kilmeaden.
“We have to be honest,” said Declan Clune Independent Councillor for the Comeragh region, “the primary motivator for all these solar farms is profit, the whole green agenda is secondary, they are making a lot of money out of this”.
“It’s promoted as the green agenda, renewable electricity, but that’s secondary … I’ve no objection to people making money with ventures but let’s be honest, the dividend to the community is little to nothing,” Cllr. Clune said.
Kilmeaden residents were outraged recently at the proposal of a huge village centre and technology park development, which includes a proposal for over 43,000 solar panels and all the associated industrial equipment. The development also includes a gym, a childcare facility and a supermarket, but those concerned argue these are token gestures to allow the idyllic rural village be turned into an industrial area in the name of social progress. There were over 300 objections to the development.
Speaking at the protest, PB Murphy warned: “We need to allow the people of rural Waterford to have a say in the future of rural Waterford”.
“Everyone I meet in rural Waterford is for the transition to green energy, to keep our environment safe, to keep the ecology of rural Waterford alive, and to allow farmers to have a fair cut of our rural economy and keep our green energy going,” he said.
“What’s been proposed here is an imbalanced drive to take our 40 shades of green, to take our living economy, to take our habitats, the birds, the bees, the pollinators and push them to one side and say it’s all about green energy,” Mr. Murphy said.
Mr. Murphy also warned that policy makers were following a similar playbook that has caused many national scandals. “That is not the global green agenda, it is not the national green agenda, it is a single issue”.
“We know that if you go on a single issue on anything … think of the mortgage scams, think of the planning in the past, think of the tribunals, every one of them had a single issue that raced ahead with political cheerleading, regulator sleepiness and community acquiescence,” said Mr. Murphy.
Cllr. Clune spoke to The Munster Express at the protest: “We’re not in any way against green energy but what we are against is the transformation of our beautiful green scenic areas into essentially grey industrial zones that will kill all the natural ecology of those areas”.
“The consultation with the communities is very, very poor, it is more of a box-ticking exercise. There’s no national regulations so you have 31 local authorities with 31 different sets of regulations.
“From a local perspective here, we are concerned that in the Comeragh District we have a solar farm in Faha; we’ve a solar farm in Stradbally; we know about the huge application in Clonea Power which has gone to judicial review; we have the application now in the High Road, Portlaw area and now we have a massive application in the Kilmeaden area,” Cllr. Clune told this newspaper.
“We’re essentially being targeted and we’re asking the planners to look at the cumulative effect this is going to have on all our communities in the rural county Waterford,” he added.
Both PB Murphy and Cllr. Clune emphasised that they were not against solar farms in principle, but that such major developments require careful consideration and engagement with local communities.
“It’s in our interest and in our children’s interest, and in our grandchildren’s interest to reduce our carbon footprint, to eliminate it and to go green,” said PB Murphy.
“But we want it done in a manner that respects the families and communities locally. I love working with them because they are brilliant people, really progressive people, but they are fearful of the disappearance of their green countryside and it being turned into grey industrialisation.”
Mr. Murphy also outlined the safety concerns of the locals.
“They’re fearful that these massive battery store systems are being put up on top of the hills, and in the event of it going wrong, then the water will be contaminated,” he said.
“They know, we know, the applicants know, there is a risk there. Why not put these massive battery store infrastructures in places where they will not cause a danger to the communities? Why put them way up on the top of hills, up over houses and allow the water to run down at the risk of flooding people’s homes?”
In outlining who was to blame for the current situation, Cllr. Clune said: “People are perfectly entitled to put in an application, there is a certain responsibility on the State for not having cohesive regulations in place when we know that there is a push towards renewable, solar and wind energy”.
“Equally, there is a lot of responsibility on the planners and local authority to ensure that people’s lives aren’t impacted by this. For me that’s the key reason. It’s the impact of people’s lives, some of whom have been in the area for generations, raised their families there.
“Others have moved out of the city to escape this kind of environment, to a nice peaceful country environment. The chances of that being ruined now are very real,” Cllr. Clune added.
Mr. Murphy was clear that he believed the pressure for these developments was coming from the very top of the political structure.
“You have to understand, the pressure coming from Brussels, the pressure coming from our government, the pressure coming from politicians from national level is absolutely massive but it is ill-conceived, it is not inclusive, it is exclusive,” said Mr. Murphy.
“That puts amazing pressure on the limited resources of local planners and when the system puts heavy pressure on a small group of people, which are the local planners, they cannot resist.
“We don’t expect them as communities to resist when they are under such international, national, and corporate pressure to give in.”
When asked if it was too late for the early engagement the group are seeking, Cllr. Clune replied: “We hope not,” while PB Murphy warned: “The degree to which communities stand up with local politicians and say listen to us, that will give massive momentum down the road to great green energy projects”.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
