An Bord Pleanala has refused planning permission for a large solar farm in Kildare.

A Co Kilkenny dairy farmer is showing the way forward to low carbon agriculture, with his own solar farm, on course to reduce his annual dairy farm electricity bill by 20%.

Ireland’s largest photovoltaic solar energy installation at the time was installed at O’Shea Farms in Co Kilkenny in October, 2015.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed has announced grant aid for solar panels and LED lighting on all farms.

Residents in a west Waterford townland have lodged an appeal to Bord Pleanála against Waterford Council’s decision to grant planning for a solar farm on a 74-acre rural site.

Campaigners opposing a large solar farm planned in West Cork have called on the Government and local authorities to introduce legislation and guidelines to control and regulate the development of such projects around the country.

Planning permission for one of the country’s largest solar farms has been approved for a site in North Cork, despite strong objections from the local community.

The Irish solar industry is losing out during the heatwave due to the lack of Government support even as records were being broken for energy production in the UK.

Planning permission has been given for a 25-acre site in West Cork.

A local action group near Midleton has lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála to try and stop a development of a solar farm outside the east Cork town.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) has made its first move into the solar energy market as part of a €140m co-investment in Dublin-based energy developer Power Capital, writes Geoff Percival.

Despite a number of local authorities in Munster deferring solar-farm applications until the sector is more regularised, an unopposed application has been given the go-ahead in Co Waterford.

Sixty jobs have been announced by a Dublin-based solar-energy company.

Communities are hitting back at a surge in solar farm construction spreading across the country with no specific planning guidelines in place to regulate them.

It is essential that Ireland cuts its dependence on imported energy. We still bring in something around 90% of our needs, a figure that makes us more vulnerable than is prudent in an increasingly fractured world.

No specific guidelines are available for solar energy farms in Irish planning but applications are being lodged in an abundance along Kerry, Cork and the west coast.

Solar energy firms are seeking state subsidies of €25m per year to kickstart power generation on a mass scale using the sun’s rays.

Off-shore windfarms and the use of solar energy should be considered instead of placing large wind turbines near rural communities in Co Cork.

Bord na Móna plans to build a pilot solar energy farm in Offaly next year and is currently in talks with a number of potential development partners with the view to gaining a foothold in the burgeoning subsector of the new energy market.