‘Bungalow bliss’ will disrupt pylon plans, warns expert

The ‘bungalow bliss’ nature of the Irish countryside will make it difficult for EirGrid to avoid building its planned 400kV powerlines close to or even above people’s homes, according to a leading European representative group for cable and wire manufacturers.

It would be possible to avoid people’s homes by running the Gridlink cables underground in residential areas if rural housing development was more concentrated, said Volker Wendt, the director of public affairs with Europacable.

However, with ‘one-off’ housing the norm and much coveted in the Irish countryside, this approach will likely not work here, Dr Wendt told a conference on pylons in Kilkenny.