‘Are we having a laugh here?’ — Decision to grant planning for 300-acre solar farm in rural Wexford is slammed

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

In the wake of Wexford County Council’s (WCC) decision to grant planning permission for a 300-acre solar farm in Gusserane, one local councillor has been moved to ask whether officials are “having a laugh”.

The Shelburne Energy Farm has been the subject of much debate since a planning application was lodged in September of last year with impacted residents setting up the Gusserane Community Action Group (GCAG) as they sought ways to thwart the development.

This led to a protest outside Wexford County Hall and moves inside the chamber to change legislation regarding solar farms in the county. However, despite these efforts, the solar farm received planning permission on June 6 and will now go ahead as scheduled subject to an appeal to An Coimisúin Pleanála (ACP).

Still reeling from the news, Councillor Marty Murphy questioned the merits of a planning report which he said did not tally up with reality.

“This is a 300-acre solar farm with fields full of shipping containers,” he said at the June meeting of the New Ross Municipal District (NRMD). “The first line of the planning report states that the solar farm would not ‘serious injure the amenity of the area’ and is therefore in accordance with proper planning, are we having a laugh? That’s all I’m going to say on this.”

The farm will consist of panels on ground mounted frames at a maximum height of 4m, 17 transformer centres, a substation, four meteorological centres, a battery energy storage system (BESS) containing 79 battery storage modules, 19 transformer and power conditioning units, and a well and a pump house. The solar farm has a 40-year operational license.

With officials restricted in what they could say due to the solar farm currently being under appeal, it was left to Cllr Pat Barden to sum up the feeling in the local community.

“There’s a huge shift in power from what local people want and what the council has done by giving planning permission for this solar farm,” he said. “This is the beginning of a scenario where people in rural areas aren’t going to be able to do anything to prevent developments of renewable energy, we are powerless to stop this.”

Believing that this will signal the start of similar-sized developments being approved across the county, Cllr Barden said politicians from across the spectrum needed to come together to prevent that from happening.

“As councillors, TDs, senators, and ministers, we need to sit down and discuss this together, and devise a targeted response to goverment, this is going to be a huge issue come election time.”

With over 200 submissions to WCC, this planning application is the most objected to development in recent history, and those objections related to both the long and short-term impact of the farm.

The members of the Gusserane Community Action Group (GCAG) have confirmed their intention to appeal WCC’s planning decision to ACP.