Fuel Protest (Read MOD NOTE on first post)

They are cheap for a reason, there is heavy subsidies in China (which killed European manufacturers) and they use coal in their manufacturing process and slave labour

RTE Investigates even had a documentary about it recently

I don’t think street view updated and there’s more fields only few weeks ago getting frames installed on them and BESS storage now being rammed through

Locals are opposing the storage this time around, notice how RTE spun the headline to not be what posters say as the solar “farm” is already there tho seems to be expanding

in interviews on local radio they gave they didn’t even know those are coming as nothing was sent to them during lockdowns

come next elections the current TDs better not get too cozy as all of this is tearing communities apart, I suspect energy (fuel, electricity) is gonna be a big feature of rural elections going forward

Put em in Phoenix park and then see the outcry that would cause from million plus Dubliners, I posted pictures of what BESS storage looks like, fields converted to gravel and concrete parking lots with rows and rows of transformers and container sized batteries that not sane person can claim as “agricultural” and clearly industrial in their purpose

You go purchase agricultural land and convert it to industrial use and see how that goes for you

it’s a green area close to most of the demand for the state

We are told solar farm and BESS storage are “green” (sure they have grass on em one said!) and not industrial

Put it there and see what a third of the population makes of these claims then

And there’s no food grown there either

If the fields and farms are subsidised and the farm is happy to take the payments, the land owner needs to be open to different use cases for those fields.

Solar is an efficient use of that land for the whole population and does not incur climate related emissions & fines in the way traditional farming does.

The trade off of accepting the subsidies is flexibility over how the land is used.

If you dont want the farm land used for solar, dont take the benefit payments from the tax payer and then you can run the land as you wish.

I've literally got a solar farm around the corner from me. It has absolutely no impact upon my life. I'd say plenty of the community are barely aware it exists. There were people objecting but the tangible impact on anyone in the area is zero.

good for you, now have you disconnected from the grid completely or still relying on it for the 90% gap in capacity factor solar has

The original application had three submissions from locals, was advertised in the papers and site notices erected. In this day and age of WhatsApp and Facebook community groups I struggle to believe the wider community were unaware of the proposed 340 hectare proposed solar farm ...especially as one of the submissions stated that 30+ walkers used one particular road daily, a road that had one of the the planning permission notices erected.

I've looked at the plans for this solar farm and followed the Google street view car along the nearby roads. The vast majority of houses in the locality will not see the solar farm, in addition, the majority of roadside hedging will obscure the farm - the array according to the planning docs will be a maximum of 2.5m high (a little taller than a human) and 160m from the nearest house.

There's mention of battery energy storage system in the original documents so it shouldn't come as any surprise to locals that the developer is now looking for approval to build that element of the project out although I can't seem to see a planning application for it.

This project has NIMBYism written all over it.

The original application was lodged in middle of full Covid lockdown hence 4 objections people literally didn’t find out until it was too late and company made no effort to contact locals

The latest extension has hundreds of objections from just about everyone next to it which should tell you something

great the state can then use it to showcase to the population how natural these industrial facilities are without having to buy land

You're all over the place in this thread. Bluster, lies and overexaggerating points to make your stance look more reasonable than it really is.

There is a planning process that was followed. If locals weren't aware, that's on them but the fact that the application HAD submissions from locals means that 'the locals' were made aware of it. So what if it looks like an industrial estate. What would you rather it looked like? Should everyone in the country contact you before building anything to make sure it passes your own, personal taste test?

"no one in the area getting anything for it"……………the entitlement is off the charts……..what exactly do you expect? Is this why you have such a bee in your bonnet about the whole thing? Are you looking for a few quid off the auld leccy bill, or what? If it was a farm, would you be camped outside demanding a few shteaks and half a dozen eggs? If it was a data centre, would you be looking for a free iPad? You DO realise this is private land (unlike the Phoenix Park) and has pretty much SFA to do with you or anyone else, yes? If you put a trampoline in your garden will you be letting the locals in to use it? Or if you convert your attic into a sauna, you'll allow everyone in the area to have a go, will you? Spoiler alert: will you fcuk.

"Israeli tactics"…………..absolutely shameless stuff. Having to descend to this level of hyperbole just demonstrates how baseless your original point is.

The biggest problem with planning in Ireland is everyone is an armchair Vitruvius who immediately becomes an expert on anything that they don't like. Thermal runaway, gimme a break.

And all the businesses being on the brink