Warning windfarms could shut without planning reform

Up to 20% of the currently installed onshore wind energy capacity in Ireland could disappear at the end of this decade if the planning system is not urgently amended, the sector has warned.

A new report by Wind Energy Ireland has claimed that up to 76 windfarms around the country will see their planning permission expire between now and 2030.

Unless they are able to extend that permission, dozens could be forced to cease generating and will be decommissioned, the body has warned.

However, the organisation said that the current planning process is costly and time-consuming and there is no guarantee that it will be successful.

Wind Energy Ireland says it is not seeking a planning exemption for existing windfarms that wish to continue operating, but does want the renewal process to be streamlined.

“We need to make it easier for wind farm owners to extend the duration of their planning permissions and, in the new Wind Energy Guidelines to be published before the end of the year, ensure the same problem does not arise in future,” said Noel Cunniffe, chief executive of Wind Energy Ireland.

“There is simply no reason, in the middle of twin climate and energy crises, to decommission operational wind farms because of planning restrictions, unsupported by evidence, imposed decades ago.”

Ireland’s oldest windfarm is over three decades old, but still continues to generate power, and the organisation argues that the life of many others could be extended by up to a decade or more.

The sector also wants the duration of planning permissions for onshore windfarms to be made longer, in line with the requirement from the energy regulator for the operational lifetime for a windfarm’s grid connection to be 50 years.

The industry also wants to make it easier for existing windfarms to be “repowered” or fitted with new more efficient turbines when the current ones reach end of life.

Under EU law there is a provision that allows for a presumption in favour of the granting of planning permission to applications for repowering, Wind Energy said, and it wants this to be incorporated into the new Planning and Development Bill 2023.

However, the proposed changes could be met with resistance in areas of the country where onshore windfarms which were given permission in the past were and remain opposed.

Those with environmental concerns are likely to want to maintain the right to object to the continuation of a windfarm, particularly in circumstances where a factor that might be cause for rejection and that wasn’t present previously is now.

It could also prove contentious if repowering an old windfarm would result in existing turbines being replaced with larger or more intrusive ones.

But Wind Energy Ireland argues that without Government action now on planning reform to speed up the pace of the permission process, by the end of the decade more onshore windfarms could be shutting down than opening up.