‘Full house’ sign at windfarm meeting in Limerick due to size of crowd

AN INFORMATION evening  on a massive windfarm in South Limerick was oversubscribed with concerned locals.

The  Bruff Dromin Athlacca-Ballinlee Community Action Group, who are objecting to a plan to install 17 industrial-sized wind turbines in their south Limerick locality, hosted the event in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre last week. 

READ MORE: ‘Dismay’ over plan for 17 wind turbines in Limerick taller than the Spire in Dublin

Over 100 people attended with many unable to gain access as the meeting reached full capacity. A ‘full house’ sign had to be placed on the door. 

The group is now planning a further public meeting in August to “ensure everyone has an opportunity to participate and stay informed”. 

Ballinlee Green Energy (whose  parent company is Greensource) plans to install 17 industrial-sized wind turbines, each with a tip height of up to 160 metres — three times the height of the Kilmallock Church spire. The rotor diameter alone would be 136 metres.

The group gave information on the proposed project to attendees. 

Guest speaker Fred O'Sullivan from Gneevegullia, County Kerry detailed his experience on his community’s opposition to a large windfarm proposal in the Sliabh Luachra area which they successfully opposed over a five-year campaign. 

Mr O’Sullivan said some Kerry residents living in close proximity to wind turbines are experiencing negative effects such as noise. He described it as “the car that never arrives in your driveway”. He also spoke of shadow flicker which “can extend further than 10 times the turbine tip height, which in the case of the proposed turbines would be over a distance of 1.6km”. 

The meeting also heard a first-hand account from a woman living just 500m from Kilmeedy Windfarm which consists of two turbines, each 132 metres high. She described how “the flicker enters every room of her home and the noise is persistent, causing sleep disturbance for the family”. 

The action group say under current Wind Energy Guidelines from 2006 the minimum setback is just 500m between each turbine and a residential property. The 2019 draft guidelines suggest a setback of four times the tip height should apply.

“It was confirmed on the night that a recent motion had received approval by Limerick councillors to write to the minister requesting that no new onshore windfarm planning applications should be approved until the Wind Energy Development Guidelines are updated,” said a spokesperson for the group. 

The plan for the windfarm in Bruff, Dromin, Athlacca areas will go directly to An Coimisiún Pleanála (formerly An Bord Pleanala).

A number of councillors were in attendance including  Noreen Stokes, Brigid Teefy, Greg Conway, John O’Donoghue, and Trina O’Dea on behalf of Minister of State Niall Collins. 

Deputy Richard O'Donoghue said the proximity to people’s homes and the scale of the turbines were a “major concern”. He is calling for updated guidelines to be consistent with WHO on noise.

Residents told of their fears on turbine proximity and noise. 

“A number of residents raised concerns regarding the lack of a public forum, reporting that only one-on-one meetings were allowed with developers, with a maximum of two people per household,” said a spokesperson for the group. 

The Bruff Dromin Athlacca-Ballinlee Community Action Group encourages all residents to “stay informed of the project”. They say it is unknown when the application will be lodged. 

Details of the next public meeting will be announced shortly.