Clare wind farm gets go-ahead

[DCon]

The wind farm will be a co-op with the landowners forming a majority of the company.

Good on them, say I.

Clare County Council has given the go-ahead for construction on the largest community owned wind farm development in Ireland.

The €200 million project will see West Clare Renewable Energy build 28 3MW wind turbines on a mountain slope between Ennis and Miltown Malbay, and will generate enough power to cover every home and business in Co Clare. Construction of the project will generate up to 300 jobs.

The project, which will cut carbon emissions by 4.4 million tonnes of carbon over its life time, will also meet the Limerick Clare Energy Agency’s 2010 targets for emissions reductions and renewable energy production.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...reaking20.html

[DCon]

More here: http://www.clareherald.com/regional/...arm.html?lang=

Commenting on receiving planning approval for the project, WCRE chairman and Clare-based entrepreneur Padraig Howard said he was delighted and relieved on behalf of the company and the thirty farm families who have “invested heavily in this iconic renewable energy project for Clare, the largest of its kind in the County since the development of the Ardnacrusha Hydroelectric Power Station”.

Mr. Howard, who is a Founding member of the Spirit of Ireland Initiative, pointed out that Clare is also the only county on the Western seaboard of Ireland with the existing electricity grid Infrastructure to accommodate the additional renewable energy power. “Mount Callan offered the perfect combination of wind resource, transmission lines and available land for wind farms”, he added. “Mount Callan has long been associated with energy production and for decades supplied peat to power stations in the region. In more rechttp://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?t=3586ent times large scale commercial forestry had become the energy crop of choice on the mountain” he continued.

Fellow Mount Callan landowner Fred Tottenham, whose family have farmed on Mount Callan since the 1830's, commented: “In the 1960's my father, Robert, started to plant trees on the Mountain after he realised that West Clare had some of the best soil for forestry in Ireland. He was always interested in harnessing the wind to produce energy and we are delighted that Mount Callan will soon offer a new source of income to the local community. This is a real and viable way to address rural depopulation and sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations residents in the area”.

[C. Flower]

I hope this works out well for them. I would like to see a big shift to wind energy production in Ireland, rather than subsidies to ripping out bogs and burning them.

[Gruffalo]

Great news, we need more initiatives like this.

[Cáthasaigh]

The way to cure the economy is to legalise and regulate marijuana production in wind-generated electric hydroponic farms using polythene tunnels similar to what mushrooms are grown in. This could then be taxed and sold domestically as well as exported by the tonne. It would represent a huge source of revenue and a major blow to organised crime. Unfortunately organised crime in Ireland depends upon corrupt, gombín politicians so there is no chance of such a radical, progressive and sensible initiative occurring.

[DCon]

The way to cure the economy is to legalise and regulate marijuana production in wind-generated electric hydroponic farms using polythene tunnels similar to what mushrooms are grown in. This could then be taxed and sold domestically as well as exported by the tonne. It would represent a huge source of revenue and a major blow to organised crime. Unfortunately organised crime in Ireland depends upon corrupt, gombín politicians so there is no chance of such a radical, progressive and sensible initiative occurring.

Exported to where?

It is illegal in most countries.

[Cáthasaigh]

Exported to where?

It is illegal in most countries.

Doesn't mean we couldn't fill containers and process customs export papers.

[TotalMayhem]

Exported to where?

To Holland? We could swap it for some Irish IOUs held by ACC/Rabobank.

It is illegal in most countries.

I know, it's still illegal in Holland, they just don't enforce the law concerning Marijuana very strictly in certain places.