EU’s top court to rule on Tipperary wind farm planning

The EU’s top court is to rule later this month on whether An Bord Pleanála properly assessed the environmental impact on the habitat of the hen harrier of a proposed €80m wind farm in Tipperary.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has said the challenge by environmentalists to the proposed wind farm (which would be within a designated special protection area) is likely to set case law on wind farms and protected habitats.

An Bord Pleanála had ruled that the measures proposed by ESB Wind Development and Coillte, the joint developers of the wind arm at Keeper Hill, in the Silvermines Mountains, in relation to the preservation of the hen harrier, a protected bird species, had complied with its obligations under the EU Habitats Directive.