Emissions goals at risk from planning delays, claims energy firm

Planning delays threaten to derail the Government’s renewable energy targets, one electricity business warned at the weekend.

The Government aims to have wind, solar and other renewables generate 80 per cent of the Republic’s electricity by 2030 as part of the State’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But Paul Carson, managing director of renewables developer Strategic Power Projects, has become the latest industry figure to warn that planning delays and other problems risked the State not hitting this target.

Local businesses recently appealed Kildare County Council’s decision to grant Strategic Power permission to build a €100 million solar farm close to Naas that is capable of supplying electricity to some 20,000 homes. Mr Carson predicted that the time taken by An Bord Pleanála to process such appeals means “the project could be knocked back by three years”.

He said the planning hold-ups mean the project could miss successive opportunities to apply for a grid connection. This can only be done in September each year.

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The businessman argued that the planning, appeals and grid connections systems imposed delayed renewable projects. “We will not meet the renewables targets with the current planning process,” said Mr Carson.

His comments mirror views expressed over the weekend by Offshore Energies UK, the umbrella group for the British offshore energy sector, about the UK’s planning system and its likely impact on delivering renewables infrastructure there.

Strategic Power consulted with local interests when it began planning the Naas solar farm. The company cut the original project’s size when it emerged that the Dublin Gliding Club used nearby land.

Following Kildare County Council’s decision to grant permission, businesses including several nearby stud farms, a key part of the local economy, appealed the ruling An Bord Pleanála.

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National Grid operator EirGrid confirmed that September was the yearly application window for connections to the national grid.

“As the connection of one customer will affect the connection of another, it makes sense to process them in a batch to avoid the endless restudying that a drip-feed of applications would cause,” said the State company.

EirGrid and ESB Networks assess applications to see which will qualify and to consider interactions between projects and ideal connection locations, then issue offers over the following calendar year.

Mr Carson noted that Europe’s RepowerEU scheme calls on member states’ planning authorities to treat renewable energy developments as projects with over-riding national interest to speed them through any application process. Jim Gannon, one of the State’s three commissioners for the regulation of utilities, told politicians last week that this should include wind, solar and badly needed gas generators.

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Strategic Power Projects is working on different developments around the State. Mr Carson noted that many proposals got through planning without appeal, but added that challenges were an issue in specific areas.

He called for a separate grid application system for batteries, which even out peaks and troughs in electricity demand, easing pressure on the network. Mr Carson said his company’s battery projects could aid EirGrid in dealing with a potential 280-megawatt shortfall on the Republic’s system highlighted last week by the company’s chief executive, Mark Foley.

EirGrid said at the weekend that the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities sets the rules for connecting generators and batteries. “The policy is subject to public consultation so anyone who wants has the right to influence it,” said the company.