Location of 26 turbines for Bracklyn, Lisclogher and Ballivor announced
Known as 'Ballivor Wind Farm', Bord na Móna Powergen has published detailed drawings of the location of its planned 26 turbines at lands in Ballivor, Bracklin, Carranstown, Lisclogher and Lisclogher West bogs.
The proposed turbines will have an overall blade tip height of up to 200 metres above ground level, across 80,000 hectares.
The turbine layout has been “designed with a minimum setback distance of 800m to the nearest house from a turbine,” states the Bord na Móna website.
“This complies with the Draft Wind Energy Development Guidelines (2019), which proposes a setback distance of 4 times the tip height,” the site continues.
Apart from the turbines themselves, other principal components of the wind farm include foundations to support the turbine towers, crane hard standings, underground cabling between turbines, an on-site electricity substation and an electrical connection to the appropriate node on the national grid, as well as access.
Jobs
According to Bord na Móna Powergen, the development would support up to 100 jobs at peak construction, and 3-5 long term high quality technical jobs in operations and maintenance.
“Local communities will also benefit from additional rates paid to the local authority which support the provision of local services, a community benefit scheme and the upgrading of road infrastructure where necessary in the local area.
“Similar to Mount Lucas Wind Farm, it is also intended to facilitate the public use of the internal roadways for recreation and amenity.”
Domestic market
The purpose of the Ballivor Wind Farm is to generate renewable electricity for the domestic electricity market in Ireland, the website claims: “We are committed to leading the change to more sustainable resources in Bord na Móna. Wind energy is one of the solutions we are developing to create this change."
Bord na Móna’s interest in bringing forward the proposed Ballivor Wind Farm is a result of the company’s transition to becoming a major supplier of renewable energy: “As part of its Brown to Green Strategy, the company is implementing an extensive peatland rehabilitation programme and expanding its new low carbon operations.
A key objective of this strategy involves using the land to continue to underpin Ireland’s energy independence by developing green, sustainable energy sources to assist with Ireland’s commitment to generate 70% renewable electricity by 2030.
“Following on from public consultation events held in Ballivor, Delvin and Raharney in March 2020, we have progressed the project design and have now produced a draft wind turbine layout.”