‘We were happy to engage with nearly every resident’... Solar Farm developer taking a different approach to new energy

The 215 hectare Soleire Renewables Holdings Ltd solar farm will take a different approach to other solar farm developments according to PJ McCarthy, founder and director of the company.

"We have out together a very robust planning application, addressed all pre-planning discussions and consulted with local residents," he said.

"We are professionals. A number of local authorities have referred our planning applications as guidance for other companies," he said.

Mr McCarthy said they had engaged with local residents and sat down with them on a one-to-one basis as everyone has their own concerns. "We were happy to engage with nearly every resident.

"We had eight weeks of voluntary consultation along with the five weeks of statutory consultation," he said.

The project will see a net biodiversity gain, according to Mr McCarthy who explained they had engaged UK specialists including an ecologist, hydrologiest and landscape architect to work together and look at the design including additional hedging, planting and landscaping to apply best practice in improving biodiversity.

He said they have a traffic management company working on the project and they will not be competing with peak traffic.

"This is a light engineering project and will involve 16 weeks of deliveries."

Mr McCarthy said they had carried out a full electromagnetic study and found the risk to health from the solar farms was extremely low. "You would be more at risk from your hoover, iron or microwave at home than from solar panels. The SEAI are promoting solar panels around the country and woudn't be doing that if they thought there was a health implication.

"We have engaged professional estate agents and experts on the ground locally on the Kilbride Road and solar farms do not impact on property prices."

On the issue of prime agricultural land, Mr McCarthy said the land will not go to waste.

"We will be planting it in grassland meadow which supports biodiversity, active, organic farming. It will help regenerate the soil over time and we will be using all native species.

"We will be grazing sheep on that land."

As to food security, he said just two per cent of the areas farmland is being lost and a lot more major events would have to happen to threaten food security.

Soleire already has planning permission for a solar farm at Kilroo near Kilbride and have clusters of solar farms in Cork and Tipperary that are at construction phase.