Meenbog Wind Farm developer seeks more time for substitute consent application

A company has sought extra time to make an application for substitute consent over a controversial wind farm outside Ballybofey.

An Bord Pleanála is considering the application by Planree Ltd, who have requested extra time for the application in relation to the Meenbog Wind Farm. The company was granted leave in October by the planning body, who said at the time that an environmental impact assessment and an appropriate assessment was required.

In November 2020, the Meenbog Wind Farm was the scene of a major peat slide.  Thousands of tonnes of peat and conifers careered down into the Mournebeg river and the Shruhangarve burn on the construction site of the 19-turbine windfarm, situated just south of Ballybofey.

Last May, High Court Proceedings, taken by Donegal County Council, heard claims that unauthorised works have been carried out at the site with the local authority seeking to restrain Planree Limited and Mid Cork Electrical Limited from finishing the ‘largely complete’ project at Meenbog, Cashelnavean, Co Donegal.

The development has received more than €100 million investment with 182 acres of Sitka trees having been felled to make way for the turbines. It has previously been reported that Amazon committed to buying the energy from the completed 91.2MW Meenbog 19-turbine windfarm for Amazon Web Services.

Leave to apply for substitute consent, a form of retention permission in Irish planning law, has been sought for 25 deviations from the permitted development. An inspector’s report has highlighted 45 deviations from the permitted development, the majority of which it is claimed do not require substitute consent.

MKO Consultants, acting on behalf of the applicant, have said that 90 per cent of the engineering works - including access roads, electricity substation, turbine hardstands, turbine bases, pear repositories and borrow pit areas - are already ‘substantially complete’.

Of the 25 deviations that will require substitute consent, many relate to alternation of the internal road alignment, additional peat storage cell, alterations to the alignment of several access roads.

Following a complaint, in the days after the November 2020 peat slide, a warning letter was issued and several instances of further engagement took place with the applicant, who was advised that substitute consent was required.

In its order from October, An Bord Pleanála say that ’exceptional circumstances do exist’ on the site and noted ‘the applicant is making reasonable efforts too regularise the planning status of the development’.

An inspectors’s report, which accompanied that order, said that there was no assertion that the subject deviations caused the peat slide in 2020.

The report said: “The as-constructed development is consistent with the nature, scale and extent of potential environmental impacts assessed by the original EIAR.

“All deviations are contiguous to the approved development and are of a minor nature.

“The applicant could reasonably have had a belief that the subject deviations were not unauthorised. It is common for largescale developments such as wind farms to have a degree of built-in flexibility to allow for further refinement of construction activities in response to on-site conditions. The subject deviations are not considered to be material changes.”

The inspector said that the likelihood of significant effects on the environment cannot be excluded by the Board and there is a requirement for a determination as to whether an environmental impact assessment is required.

Last year, a senior counsel, Esmonde Keane, for Donegal County Council, told the High Court that there has been ‘quite significant’ excavation of bog and construction at a two-hectare quarry and just 0.2 hectares was permitted.

The works began in 2019 and Mr Keane told the court that this gave rise to the ‘significant bog slide’. 

Most of the components for the wind turbines are in storage in Killybegs and remain ready to be erected and commissioned. 

A multi-agency response to the incident, which caused a major ecological disaster, was led by the Loughs’ Agency and an action plan was put in place. Construction works on the site where the peat slide originated was suspended.