Green energy shouldn’t have become sleazy

The increase this month in the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy, that all electricity users pay to support the renewable energy industry, should prompt a pause for thought about the rollout of this industry here.

The plethora of cases before the High Court regarding concerns about poorly planned wind energy developments suggest a Department of Energy review of the industry is urgently required. The extreme volatility of national policy with local authorities, An Bord Pleanála and the High Court regularly engaged in a game of expensive decision reversal and re-reversal, suggests chaos.

Rural communities feel abandoned and abused by a Government determined to comply with EU targets and a combination of small scale developers chasing short term profit while local authority planners appear simply and unable to scrutinise the industry. The upcoming adoption of a new set of government guidelines for wind energy development will not go far enough to deal with the weaknesses in our system.