By Sinead O'Malley, Acting Portfolio Director at FuturEnergy Ireland
Late September marked a significant week in the Irish courts for FuturEnergy Ireland with the focus on Carrownagowan, one of our wind farm projects in East Clare. The potential site for this 19-turbine wind farm was identified as far back as 2014 and received consent from An Bord Pleanála in 2022. The timeline for infrastructure development, as this project clearly shows, is not for the faint-hearted.
Since then, the Board’s planning decision has been subject to judicial review in the High Court. To date, there have been five High Court rulings, all upholding the Board’s consent. The most recent two decisions, issued in late September, affirmed the Board’s decision and hinted at questions that we as a business are reflecting on more and more.
Our central questions are straightforward, but the answers are anything but simple. Are we, in Ireland, moving quickly and decisively enough to keep pace with the rapidly evolving EU laws that emphasise the importance of renewable energy projects in addressing climate change? This also forces us to examine how Irish decision-making balances the need for environmental protection, in terms of these projects — which themselves contribute to environmental sustainability — and existing EU environmental protection laws. As the judge succinctly put it in *Carrownagowan Concern Group & Ors. v An Bord Pleanála & Ors. (No. 3) [2024] IEHC 549*:
"Such recent developments in EU law are potentially of significance in that they provide a form of answer for the hitherto problematic clash between arguments regarding the need to address the climate emergency versus the need to give effect to previously established European environmental law regardless of the nature of the project… Such developments must adjust the public interest calculus somewhat against endless litigation and appeals in relation to renewable energy projects…"
The answer to these questions is multi-faceted. However, the judgement in the Carrownagowan case suggests that a potential shift in perspective may be on the horizon. At the very least, these questions — how we react to the urgency of climate action as reflected in EU law, and how we balance the need for renewable energy projects with the complexities of environmental law — are long overdue for discussion. We must address them head-on if we are to ensure that decision-making processes are swift fair, and conducive to the change that we know is essential.
