Cork County Council has granted planning approval for two new 5MW solar farms in Beal na Bláth and Ballinvarrig in Co. Cork. The permission has been granted to Amarenco Solar.
Each of the solar farms will comprise approximately 22,200 photovoltaic panels on ground-mounted frames within a site area of 10.2 hectares and each project will employ 40 during the construction phase. The total investment in ten solar facilities that have been granted planning permission equates to €70 million.
Amarenco Solar claims the solar plants will be on farming lands that will help farmers increase and diversify income by providing a stable source of revenue and ensuring the viability of agriculture for decades to come. Sheep will also be farmed on the all solar farm lands.
It is expected that the Irish Government will announce tariffs applicable to solar farms by the end of June 2017. These facilities will help the Government hit the EU 2020 renewable energy targets, which on the basis of current momentum will not be reached. Once introduced, companies will need funding to build solar farms across Ireland.
MC2 Accountants is currently completing the second round of Employment and Investment Incentive (EII) Scheme funding, a tax relief incentive scheme which provides all income tax relief to investors for investments in qualifying SMEs, for Amarenco Solar Projects Ltd, a company developing all of the Irish farms.
CEO of Amarenco Solar, John Mullins said, "The construction of these solar farms will boost the Irish economy through the generation of employment, benefit the agricultural sector and create a significant new source of renewable energy. At the end of 2015, the Government published a White Paper on Energy, designed to enable Ireland meet its EU binding obligations for renewable energy."
He added, "Unfortunately, we are no closer to meeting these targets. Currently the country is meeting 9.5% of its binding renewable targets for the EU, and it is expected to get to 16% by 2020. If these targets are not reached, the Irish taxpayer will be left paying very large annual bills from 2020 that will run into hundreds of millions of euro."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
