The sunny north-east does not have quite the same ring to it but Meath may be about to steal Wexford’s crown as the solar centre of Ireland.
lanning permission has been lodged in the east of the county for a solar farm 656 acres in size.
It will be arranged in 3,990 rows, each with between 25 and 125 panels, resulting in a total of 410,575 panels.
For a sense of the scale, the entire Stradbally Estate where Electric Picnickers had hoped to dance, party and camp this summer comes to 550 acres.
Alternatively, arranging 200 Croke Park playing pitches side by side would cover roughly the same ground.
Co Meath already holds the record for the largest solar farm in the country, a 216-acre installation on which construction has just begun at Ballymacarney.
It went through the planning process with barely a ripple which suggests a high level of public acceptance for such developments.
Local councillor Nick Killian was asked by some local residents to make a submission to the planners expressing concerns about the project, mainly about traffic levels during construction, but he had no personal objection.
“I had a kind of cynical view but I went up to Belfast to see a solar farm there [the first on the island, which has been providing power to Belfast International Airport since 2016] and it was very impressive,” he says.
“It’s hard to visualise a solar farm unless you’ve actually seen one and this one was very unobtrusive.
“Having said that, what we’re looking at here in my area is multiples of what’s in Belfast and it’s in a farming area.
“Between what’s been granted permission already and what’s been applied for, solar farms could take 1,600 acres out of tillage and pasture around here. That’s good land we’re losing. We need solar farms but we also need regular farms.”
In fact, across Co Meath, there are more than 2,000 acres earmarked for solar farms. Energia has three projects at planning stage and permission for a fourth.
Decisions are due on two others from different backers and three more already have permission, although there has not been much move to develop them yet.
The biggest concentration is where the county borders Dublin, roughly following a line to the west of the N2/M2 motorway.
“We know why that is,” says Keiran Cummins of the EcoAdvocacy group which has lodged a lengthy objection to the largest proposal.
“Dublin needs electricity and Meath is going to be used to supply it. It’s about convenience rather than good planning.”
Government policy is encouraging the development of solar energy and there is a target of providing 1.5 gigawatts of electricity from solar by 2030.
That is far less than the target for wind, which is to supply 8.2GW from onshore turbines and 3.5GW from offshore installations, but with electricity demand rapidly increasing, every contribution will count.
And the beauty of solar is that it requires far less construction than wind, is much less visible, makes no noise and leaves little trace when dismantled.
With onshore wind projects at times prompting bitter and lengthy planning battles, solar can have strong appeal.
Meath East TD Darren O’Rourke would like it to stay that way, but he is concerned that over-concentration of projects may create opposition.
Despite approving 68 solar projects under the State-funded Renewable Electricity Support Scheme late last year, the Government has produced no national planning policy around where such projects should be located.
“Planning authorities must make their decisions, based on the specific merits or otherwise of individual planning applications,” the Department of Housing and Planning said.
It said Planning Minister Peter Burke was satisfied that this system was “sufficiently robust” but added: “The matter is being kept under review.”
Deputy O’Rourke would like a more proactive approach, possibly with areas zoned in advance for renewable energy developments to spread them more evenly.
“It would work both ways in terms of making counties that don’t want projects take their share while protecting counties that are open to them from ending up with too many,” he says.
“I would be concerned that if we don’t get in ahead of this one that communities might begin reacting. You may see a resistance which would be regrettable,” he says.
The 656-acre project currently going through planning is the Kilrue Solar Park proposed by Soleire Renewables for the Kilbride area of Co Meath.
The entire site is owned by Iveagh Property Nominees, a company registered in Jersey, which makes the location more attractive than one where separately owned parcels of land must be accumulated.
The project prompted 26 submissions, mainly from individual residents, households and residents’ groups objecting to it on grounds of size, over-concentration, loss of agricultural land, loss of views, fears of property devaluation, concerns around glint and glare and impact on wildlife.
A decision is due from Meath County Council next month. Soleire Renewables was sent a list of questions but said it preferred not to discuss the project in advance of a decision.
Kieran Cummins said in his objection that the rush to solar did not make sense practically.
“It’s not dispatchable,” he says, meaning it cannot be generated on demand.
“We’re going to install all this extensive infrastructure that will be sitting there 24 hours a day but only usable when it’s bright.”
He pleads in his submission for the authorities to look instead to geothermal power, tapping the heat that lies deep underground with minimum over-ground infrastructure or impact on homes and landscape.
The Department of Environment and Climate Change shares his interest, saying: “[geothermal] will have a significant role to play in meeting our energy objectives in the future.”
“To realise this potential, we will develop a robust regulatory framework,” it says.
“The Department intends to publish a draft Policy Statement on Geothermal Energy Exploration for public consultation in Q4 2021.”
In the meantime, solar farms are going to begin appearing around the country in significant numbers.
Small-scale solar is also growing. Many industrial facilities are already installing solar arrays on site to meet their own energy needs, and later this year new rules will be brought in to exempt schools and other public and community buildings from requiring planning permission to fit their roofs with panels.