The application by Gort Windfarms Ltd comes more than three years after the ESB decided to shut down the Derrybrien facility. The decision, taken in March 2022, followed a ruling by An Bord Pleanála (as the planning board was then known) that the development was unauthorised.
The State ran up €17m in EU fines as a result of the ongoing failure to ensure proper standards were adhered to at Derrybrien.
The fines ceased in early 2022 after the wind farm was switched off, in compliance with a European Court of Justice ruling. The windfarm is located in the Slieve Aughty Mountains and lies about 13km north-east of Gort.
Last August, Galway County Council served a planning enforcement notice on Gort Windfarms Ltd directing the company to cease and discontinue the unauthorised use and unauthorised development.
The company has now lodged two applications with ACP – one to decommission the turbines, masts, electrical plant and overhead lines, and the second seeking the retention of the ground structures.
A planning report drawn up for the ESB states: “If the decommissioning works do not proceed, the structures associated with the windfarm, substations and overhead line would deteriorate over time, rendering the site unsafe and posing serious risks – both to human health and to the local environment.”
The report said the project arises because of the need to comply with the council enforcement notice. The intention is to remove “key elements” of the windfarm, including the 70 turbines.
Left in situ will be the reinforced concrete foundations for the turbines, about 17.5km of access tracks and other ground works.
The report said the duration of the decommissioning phase is expected to be two years.
As part of the public consultation for the new application, the firm staged a public information event attended by 55 to 60 people.
One of the issues raised was “dissatisfaction with the proposal to decommission the windfarm, particularly in light of the need for additional renewable electricity generation capacity and the perception of it as an important asset”.
In October 2003, a peat slide during excavation work for the windfarm resulted in 450,000 tonnes of peat being disturbed over an area of 25 hectares.
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