Move towards co-operation in large scale renewable energy

Energy Co-operatives Ireland (ECI) will hold a public meeting in the Mullingar Park Hotel next Wednesday to establish a co-op for those participating in schemes to export renewable energy to the UK.

ECI has established smaller-scale renewable energy co-ops, but now aims to create a much larger co-op so that members can gather funds through shareholdings to add Irish-based equity to any new initiative.

ECI spokesman Cormac Walsh said the meeting on Oct 10 at 8pm will be of interest to landowners, but many others also. “We are suggesting that local communities will decide how the benefits of large-scale wind projects are dispersed. A company setting up a committee to distribute a fraction of their profits on whatever projects they want to support is not the answer to the public acceptance problem.

“We want a say in the distribution of the profits through a share in the equity. Landowners rightly play a central role, but they can be joined in the support of a scheme by other local groups. All kinds of local people are affected by large scale projects such as those being proposed,” Mr Walsh said.