5 days ago
Locals unhappy as council approves lithium battery farm in scenic Co Cork town
LOCALS IN NEWMARKET have decried Cork County Council's approval of a lithium battery farm in the 'heart' of the rural town.
An environmental group in the town has condemned the council's decision, saying that the facility is 'completely unsuitable' for the environment in the location where it has been given permission to build.
A lithium battery farm is a facility where large capacity lithium-ion batteries can store and manage electricity.
The development is described as a 'ten-year planning permission and a 35-year operational life for an energy storage facility', with the facility comprising 'energy storage containers installed on concrete plinths; electrical inverters and transformers; underground electrical and communications cabling, alongside security measures such as gates and cameras.'
The development has been proposed by Neoen Renewables Ireland Limited, the Irish branch of a French renewable energy group.
It first lodged a planning application in 2023, and won an appeal last week to proceed with the development.
The Newmarket Environmental Protection Group, which is against the development, said that the facility will impact the local environment and farming life.
It added that the site where the facility has been approved to be developed is featured in Alice Taylor's memoir To School Through the Fields, believed to be
the best-selling book ever published in Ireland
.
The site sits above the town, beside a 1,000-year-old graveyard, and a few hundred metres away from the Dalua river, a designated Blue Flag river.
The original application was met with fierce opposition locally. Numerous letters against the development were submitted to the council, including by now-Minister of State Michael Moynihan, and a number of local representatives.
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One letter written by a local man who said he lives 1.8 km away from the site highlighted the environmental impacts of such facilities, and continued: 'We just have to wait in hope that this particular facility behaves itself, and carry on regardless while others reap the rewards… Surely there has to be some common sense left in the planning department.'
The end of a letter written to the council against the development of the facility.
Spokesperson for the local group leading condemnation of the approval of the facility, Maura Cronin O'Connor, said that the facility is 'completely out of place in a rural, residential, and agricultural setting like this'.
Then local councillor, now TD for the area John Paul O'Shea opposed the development in a written observation alongside fellow councillor Trish Murphy last August. Last week, he told
The Journal
he still supports the main objective of the Newmarket Environmental Protection Group.
'We're disappointed that it has been granted, because I suppose there were additional concerns there from the community, and I don't think they're addressed by the company,' he said. O'Shea added that he would be supportive of the local group's efforts to face down the development.
'We're not against renewable energy,' he said, 'it's just the location where this was proposed.' He stressed the site's proximity to local housing and amenities.
The Newmarket Environmental Protection group said that the site is also near a primary school, a health centre, and a nursing home. There is narrow rural access to these local facilities, it said, and stated that locals fear emergency services may not be able to reach the site quickly if a fire or chemical incident occurred.
Cronin O'Connor said that the group would not be giving up.
A public meeting will be held next Tuesday at 8pm in the Cultúrlann, Newmarket, in Co Cork to update the community and organise next steps, she said.
She added that this is not against the use of renewable energy, but that this is the 'wrong project in the wrong place'.
The PR firm representing Neoen Ireland told
The Journal
that they had asked the company if it would like to comment on the opposition to the development.
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