Solar panels on land

newacc2015

enricoh wrote: »

No doubt there will be anti solar groups kicking off so. Maybe a few candidates in the next election !
Was collecting a spreader I bought off donedeal and in the space of half an hour signs for no sewerage plant wanted, no pylons wanted and no wind farms wanted! Probably missed a phone mast one too!
And the lad I bought it off said there was no work to keep young lads in the area!

Im anti-solar. Why should the tax payer pay for these to be installed when they are incredibly inefficient ? Most of Electricity subsidies in Germany are going on solar. Consumers are paying for these subsidies in the form of higher electricity bills.

Ireland is one of the windy countries in the world. Wind power is a far better option here. We were producing close to 19% of our electricity from wind in 2014. This is the future in Ireland.

Birdnuts

newacc2015 wrote: »

Im anti-solar. Why should the tax payer pay for these to be installed when they are incredibly inefficient ? Most of Electricity subsidies in Germany are going on solar. Consumers are paying for these subsidies in the form of higher electricity bills.

Ireland is one of the windy countries in the world. Wind power is a far better option here. We were producing close to 19% of our electricity from wind in 2014. This is the future in Ireland.

Wind power has its own issues(matching output with peak demand etc.) and like solar its struggling in the UK on the back of subsidy cuts by the new government there. The current government here is mulling whether to extend the current subsidy regime but with Irelands average retail energy prices all ready among the most expensive in the EU, the room to manoeuvre may be tight, plus the extra pylon roll-out to add yet more capacity is costly too and given the non-dispatcheable, intermittent nature of wind may not make much economic sense. Ireland is a windy country in parts but a lot of the wind we get is highly variable and gusty which is a challenge for grid operators and means you need near constant back-up from conventional power sources like coal etc. Colum McCarthy has written some good articles on this subject in the the IFJ over the past few years. Anyway don't want to get into an debate about off-topic stuff so will call a halt on that one.

Tom Hagen

anybody on here actually have a solar farm on their land?

or what are the Pros and Cons of such a development ?

blackdog1

Getting 700-1000 an acre sounds great. Big question for me is will it be classified as commercial land and subject to rates in the future.....

Panch18

Local farmer had planning In recently to do this on 20 hectares of the best land in the country.

Don't know if it was granted or not yet

Surely a combination of wind and wave is the way forward for this country??

_Brian

I'd worry about the feed in tariffs, we've a poor record here and give very little forward assurance..

Also our geolocation wouldn't be as good as other countries to maximise efficiency, having said that I've solar water heater panels on the house and they have far exceeded my expectations and on winter sunny days they can heat water which I didn't expect.. Theyre in 9 years now and have never needed anything doing.

The money quoted above would be a real boon to alot of farmers and I'd say good luck to them if they get it. Personally I think I'd want an advance of a few years, my big fear would be these lads would come in - hack the land to pieces installing infrastructure and then go bust before a years payment was made..

It was interesting locally to see the scramble to have wind turbines sited on farms, the lads that lost out got quite sore and many objections were lodged after the allocations were finalised..

Chuchote

coconnellz wrote: »

But it is only in specific areas in south and south east where the infrastructure is already In place to carry the electrical load to the grid also you need transformer boxes etc

Does the Department do any informational touring seminars about this, letting people know what's available and giving them the lowdown on money in and money out and advantages and disadvantages?

foxy farmer wrote: »

There was a submission for over 20 acres of solar panels lodged recently in relation to ground within 2 miles of me. Grand land that has been growing barley and silage and fattening cattle longer than i have been around.
Marginal ground fair enough but fine productive land? One thing for sure- no fear the lad in question will go into sheep.

Would it be possible to put them on one side of a greenhouse, so that they'd get the sunshine but the plants in the greenhouse would also get some sunshine and the heat?

A friend in southern California has a 'solar system' :P which gives her so much electricity that she watches her meter running backwards as the electricity gets fed into the grid. A few years ago, you'd have said "Ah yeh, California, but…" - however, photovoltaic solar panels have become much more efficient in the last few years and are (I'm told) now much more feasible in Ireland despite our low light.

Best system I ever heard of was back in the 1980s or so - a whisky distillery in some remote part of Scotland: they used turf to fire the still, the peat moss from the turf to grow saleable tomatoes in a greenhouse, and the heat from the still to heat the greenhouse.