Councillors raise fears that Comeragh lands will become polluted with solar and wind farms
Comeragh has received more applications for solar farms compared to the Waterford City and Dungarvan/Lismore electoral areas of Waterford.
Councillors in the Comeragh District have raised further concerns that lands in mid-Waterford are being used disproportionately for solar and wind farms.
The area has been subject to numerous planning applications for solar farms in recent years - a 141-hectare solar panel farm in Clonea-Power is poised to progress following a judicial review, while other large-scale developments in Portlaw and Kilmeaden hang in the balance.
A solar farm in Stradbally was granted planning permission from An Coimisiún Pleanála in 2021.
Speaking at February’s Comeragh District meeting, Cllr. Declan Clune said: “It seems to me like there's an awful lot of applications in a relatively small area of mid-county Waterford.
“In addition to that, I've been told that there are plans for more wind farms in our immediate area.”
The proposed wind farms are understood to be centred around farming land at the High Road area outside of Portlaw.
“I think the primary motivation is financial, not so much green energy,” said Cllr Clune.
A member of Waterford City and County Council’s executive branch confirmed that Comeragh received more planning applications for solar farms than any other electoral district in Waterford.
Under Ireland’s planning framework, there are currently no national regulations for solar farms, with all 31 local authorities determining their own planning regulation.
Each application put to Waterford City and County Council is assessed on its own merit, although the Council have said that the surrounding area and neighbouring developments are also taken into account.
Locally elected councillors do not have the power to section off land that could be prohibited for solar farm development.
“Nobody's against green energy or renewable energy, and I can guarantee any of the people I've been dealing with, over the last number of months and years, certainly aren’t,” Cllr. Clune said to the
“But what we do have a difficulty with is that this is more about making money than actually the green agenda.
“These people that are kind of behind a lot of these solar development companies, they're very wealthy individuals.
“They're not doing this out of the good of their heart to make a small little profit.
“What they do is they'd run it for six years, maybe, and then they flip it based on the future earnings for the following 35 odd years, or whatever.
"It might cost them €100 million to build it...they might sell it then for €250 million after six years, it's a lot. It's a big return."
All five councillors in the Comeragh District (Declan Clune, Catherine Burke, John O’Leary, Seanie Power and Liam Brazil) have all submitted submissions to solar farm projects in the past.
Cllr. Burke (Sinn Féin) said that the councillors should unite to propose a motion calling on the government to introduce stringent sweeping regulation of solar farms in Ireland.
Cllr. O’Leary (Fianna Fáil) claimed that if Comeragh continued down the same trajectory, there would be “fields of black panels, black panels, black panels” everywhere.
