Sir, ON a recent holiday in West Clare I saw the Slieve Callan wind turbines everyday. When first built, about 10 years ago, I admit to moaning about the turbines’ visual impact. Now I see them in a different light.
They generate clean renewable electricity and help to decarbonise the energy system; they make good use of an abundant resource - wind - that West Clare is blessed with; they make the country less dependent on imported gas, still the mainstay of power generation in Ireland; and in a twist of fate they make use of the transmission line built >40 years ago for the huge Moneypoint coal-fired power plant.
Of course there are tradeoffs: the turbines make some noise and birds and bats suffer, as do local people whose visual amenity is affected. But imagining there are no tradeoffs in our present reliance on gas-fired power generation is the height of folly. Just this week we see catastrophic wildfires in France and Spain. Climate science is complex but there is a clear line of causation between fossil fuel carbon emissions, climate change and extreme weather events.
I reflect on the hand-painted protest sign near Miltown opposing industrial wind farms. And on a community notice board in the church in Quilty where a flyer urged people to submit an objection to the Cahermurphy West proposed wind farm.
It made me wonder are there any West Clare community action groups that welcome and embrace wind farm developers? As an investor in renewable energy developers and projects I know well the power of a local community welcome.
West Clare has a competitive advantage in wind power generation: this resource needs to be developed and good projects deserve the active support of the people of West Clare. For the sake of our children, who will bear the costs of prolonging our fossil fuel-based energy system, we should welcome more wind projects.
Conor McCoole, Singapore