Butterfly group objects to ESB and Bord na Móna solar farm project

Butterfly expert Jesmond Harding said the solar farm’s site at Drehid in Kildare is the only known breeding site for the Small Skipper butterfly in Ireland.

150 people are to be employed during the 25-month construction phase and the solar farm will be operational for 35 years if the scheme secures the green light. File picture.

Concerns around the fate of the Small Skipper and Marsh Fritillary butterflies have delayed An Bord Pleanála making a ruling on plans for a large scale solar farm for Co Kildare.

An Bord Pleanála was due to make a decision on the Bord na Móna and the ESB application in recent days.

The two are planning the solar farm project across a 494-acre site 6.5km north of the village of Allenwood.

150 people are to be employed during the 25-month construction phase and the solar farm will be operational for 35 years if the scheme secures the green light.

However, the appeals board has delayed making a decision on the plan after receiving an objection from Butterfly Conservation Ireland against the scheme.

The organisation was formed 12 years ago in response to the “alarming decline of most of our butterfly species” which it states has accelerated in recent years.

In the objection drawn up by butterfly expert, Jesmond Harding, he stated that the solar farm’s site at Drehid is the only known breeding site for the Small Skipper butterfly in Ireland.

Mr Harding states that Butterfly Conservation Ireland is concerned that a great deal of loss and damage to the Small Skipper habitat will take place arising from the construction of a planned access road for the solar farm.

Mr Harding stated: “There is no measure to safeguard the population in advance of any new habitat developing.”

Mr Harding also states that there is a population of Marsh Fritillary butterfly breeding on the embankment on the site of the proposed access road.

Mr Harding states that the Government has a legal obligation to protect its breeding sites.

The objection adds: “Butterfly Conservation Ireland is still of the view that the proposed location of the access road and the solar farm is poorly chosen.”

The organisation states that it “believes that the development should not proceed in the areas the permission is sought for.”

In response to the Butterfly Ireland objection, the board has written to the applicants and told them in the interests of natural justice that they may make submissions on the Butterfly Conservation Ireland objection and they have until April 16 to do so.

The solar farm will have the capacity to power 30% of all households in Co Kildare each year and last year, Kildare County Council refused planning permission over concerns for the EU protected habitat, wet heath.

The energy companies have told the appeals board that no wet heath has been recorded on the site of the proposed solar farm project.

The appeal contends that the decision of the Council “is of national significance as it, in effect, rules out the development of a potentially significant renewable energy development which will contribute to achieving national targets and objectives”.