Information session on wind farm in Newport

A public information meeting on the €45 million power generating development near Newport is to be held later this month, the company behind the project has confirmed.

The company are planning for the erection of 16 145m wind turbines at Castlewaller for which planning permission was granted in 2012 for the construction of the turbines and associated works and was extended for a further five years in 2016.

Members of the community are being invited to meet with representatives of ABO at a "drop in information and consultation session" which has been arranged for the Community Centre, Newport on Wednesday, September 18th, from 4 to 8pm.
The information session is being held ahead of an application by the company to An Board Pleanála to fast-track planning permission for the connection between Castlewaller and Ballysimon, Co Limerick where it is intended to feed the power into the national grid.

The company has commited to making a substantial annual contribution to the local community which will be based on the output of electricity from the wind farm.
A spokesperson for the company stated: "It is envisaged that the communities closest to the wind farm will be prioritised. Full details of the scheme will be made public when the project has a firm construction timetable and this won’t be clear until all consents (including the grid connection) and financing for the project are in place.”

Planning approval for the connection to the national grid is the final stage of the approval process for the construction of the wind farm and subject to planning being granted the wind farm construction is scheduled to commence in 2021, subject to all consents/agreements being in place.
The company has stated that the output of electricity from the wind farm "will depend on the model of turbine that is installed on the site – a decision on this has not yet been made” but the estimate for a wind farm of this scale would be in the region of 100,000MWh per annum, which is the largest that the approval bodies are willing to grant permission for currently.
The wind farm at Castlewaller will have one turbine more than the development at Castlefarm/Monahincha Bog Wind Farm which many people in the area will be familiar with adjacent to the M7 between Roscrea and Borris-in-Ossary, while the turbines at Castlewaller will be 145m in height compared to 148.5m at Castlefarm/Monahincha Bog Wind Farm.
Consultations have yet to take place between the company and Tipperary and Limerick County Councils in relation to a plan for traffic management in the area during the construction of the connection to Ballysimon.

Newport Community Centre will host the consultation event on September 18th.

 

The route for the connection, which will be underground, has been set out by the company with a map available for the public to view on the web at www.castlewaller-windfarm.com