Farm families to benefit as €200m Clare wind farm gets green light

A €200 million wind farm, that will employ more than 300 people during construction in west Clare has been given planning permission by Clare County Council.

West Clare Renewable Energy Ltd (WCRE) plans to construct 28 wind turbines on the western slopes of 391-metre high Mount Callan, located between Ennis and Miltown Malbay.

The company is majority owned by 30 farming families who own 3,000 acres on Mount Callan.

The project will be capable of generating enough electricity to power every home and business in Co Clare, as well as meeting the Limerick Clare Energy Agency’s 2010 targets for emissions reductions and renewable energy production.

WCRE chairman and Clare-based entrepreneur Padraig Howard pointed out that Clare is the only county on the western seaboard with the existing electricity grid infrastructure to accommodate the additional renewable energy power.

“Mount Callan offered the perfect combination of wind resource, transmission lines and available land for wind farms. Mount Callan has long been associated with energy production and for decades supplied peat to power stations in the region. In more recent times commercial forestry had become the energy crop of choice.

“We have significant advantages over other counties in that we have the strongest and most robust electricity grid infrastructure in the country yet we haven’t to date made much progress in taking advantage of the grid system that we have.

“Other counties are racing ahead and Clare has significant ground to make up if we are to at least maintain our currently position as an energy producer for the region and the country.”

Local landowner John Talty said: “We would like to build on this decision to attract spin-off investment into towns such as Miltown Malbay, Ennistymon, Kilrush and Ennis… The jobs boost is desperately needed with over 10,000 people on the live register in Clare and emigration once again becoming a preferred option of the youth of Co Clare.”