» Ireland » Castlewaller Wind Farm
Castlewaller Wind Farm
Castlewaller wind farm was granted consent for 16 wind turbines up to 145 m in height and associated infrastructure near Newport, County Tipperary, in April 2012.
News
Unfortunately we haven't received our formal grid connection offer from Eirgrid as yet. Until we receive this, we cannot finalise our planning documents and drawings. As such, it is likely that the planning application submission will be delayed until early in the new year. We will keep the website updated once we have a clear timetable.
A planning application for the underground grid connection to connect the wind farm to the electricity network at the 220/110 kV Killonan substation in Co. Limerick will be made to An Bord Pleanala in late 2019.
The grid route is shown below.
A temporary 80m meteorological mast will be installed in March 2019 in order to obtain updated wind data for the site.
Wind farm construction is scheduled to commence in 2021, subject to all consents/agreements being in place.
In line with the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) high level design paper, Castlewaller wind farm will contribute €2/MWh to a community benefit fund. Details of the fund will be discussed with the local community prior to construction of the wind farm.
This new website will keep interested residents informed about the development of our wind farm Castlewaller. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions!
The Site
The location of the proposed wind farm at Castlewaller is shown above. Newport is the nearest village to the site, located approximately 3 km to the west. The nearest town to the proposed development is Ballina, approximately 14 km to the north-west. The city of Limerick is located approximately 20 km to the south-west.
The site is dominated by commercial forestry. The forested Castlewaller property covers 500 ha. It consists mainly of Sitka Spruce planted during the period 1989 – 1994. An area of cutover bog is located to the north of the site with some small patches of bracken and mixed broadleaf woodland to the west. The elevations within the site range from approximately 180 m in the west to 350 m above sea level in the southeast.
The site is located north of the R503 Limerick to Thurles road. From Newport, the site is accessed via a County road running northeast for 3 km, and then east for another 1 km.
Visualisations
View from Rossaguile Crossroads (looking south east)
View from R503 at Rear Cross (looking north west)
View from county road at Killoscully (looking south)
View from county road at Cole Cross (looking east)
View from county road at Boarmanshill (looking north east)
View from county road (east of Newport)
Background
Wind Energy in Ireland
The wind on almost the entire island blows as evenly and strongly as it does, at best, on the coasts of Central Europe. 3,500 full capacity hours are not a rarity, even for inland Irish wind farms.
But the limited grid capacities hamper a faster expansion of wind energy. With 60 inhabitants per square kilometre, the island is thinly populated – in Germany, for example, almost four times as many people (230 inhabitants per square kilometre) are bustling about in the same space and even more in the United Kingdom. Thus, the infrastructure is rather poor in some areas. As a result, the connection of a new wind farm to the Irish grid takes years in some regions.
In spite of this fact and despite the economic crises of 2008/2009, ABO succeeded in financing and finalizing the wind farms Glenough and Gortahile. Gortahile wind farm (20 megawatts), which was acquired by BNP Paribas Investment Partners, has been in operation since August 2010.
In autumn 2011, the largest wind farm (32.5 megawatts) ever constructed by ABO Wind was connected to the grid in Ireland. For the grid-connection of the wind farm Glenough, ABO Wind erected a 220 kilovolt substation. Glenough is part of the portfolio of ABO Invest, of which ABO Wind itself is a permanent shareholder. The majority of the shares belong to about 4,000 citizens.
The project Gibbet Hill in Co. Wexford with a total capacity of 15 megawatts was connected to the grid in 2013.
Our most recent project Cappawhite B in Co. Tipperary was connected to the grid in June 2018. This consists of four wind turbines with an installed capacity of 13 MW.