A Perspective on Wind Farm Developments in Ireland

One need only scratch the surface to reveal the level of disconnect that exists in Ireland between political commitments to rapidly expand inland wind turbine farms and the desire of local, overwhelmingly rural, communities to be free of them or at the very least to have their numbers reduced.

Plans to develop maritime offshore wind development is also challenged in Ireland, although to a far lesser degree. Generally speaking, there has been no concerted political opposition to the commitment within Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2024 to achieve at least 5GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030. Where criticism has emerged, it has been generally directed at the perceived pace of the development and the likelihood that offshore wind targets will not be reached.

In terms of inland wind farm development, this is not a recent development. Neither can it be characterised as pushback against what many in Ireland have come to see as the excessive overreach of green policies in shaping almost every aspect of national and community life. We know this because opposition to wind turbine farms as a stand-alone issue significantly predates the effective obliteration of Ireland’s parliamentary Green Party in the 2024 general election.

As far back as 2014 the BBC was reporting that at least 100 opposition groups had emerged in Ireland to counter the development of wind farms in local communities since the first commercial wind farm in Bellacorrick, Co Mayo, started its operation in 1992.

In this context it worth noting that by June 2016, the Irish Wind Energy Association was reporting that there were only 206 wind farms operational in the Republic of Ireland.

Much of the opposition, then, as now, has centred around the perceived threat that inland wind turbines bring to areas of outstanding archaeological significance, natural beauty, and wildlife conservation especially during the construction phase.

Additional recurring objections have centred around the impact of turbine noise on local communities, setback distances and the generation of shadow flicker which creates a moving shadow on dwellings in relative proximity to the turbines.

Concerns reached such a pitch that in 2017 the Public Health Medicine Environment and Health Group of Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) conducted a comprehensive evidence review. The review focused heavily on establishing if there were legitimate public health concerns arising from the most complained about features of wind turbines, i.e., those related to noise and shadow flicker.

The review found that while a range of effects had been reported anecdotally, there was no published scientific evidence at that time to support the notion of adverse effects on public health.

With respect to noise, the Group found that there was no direct evidence that exposure to wind farm noise affected physical or mental health. It also dismissed concerns around the effects on health of infrasound or low-frequency noise from wind farms.

In terms of shadow flicker the Group found that while wind turbines, like many other tall structures, can cast long shadows when the sun is low, there was insufficient direct evidence to draw any conclusions on an association between shadow flicker produced by wind farms and negative health effects. It did accept that both noise and flicker can amount to an ‘annoyance’ for those who live nearby.

The Group strongly urged that further research be conducted to investigate the effects of wind farms on public health. This recommendation finally led Ireland’s Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) which has primary responsibility for environmental noise matters to appoint noise consultants in May 2023 to inform any amendments to the noise aspect of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines.

Positive changes have also been brought about with respect to addressing the issues created by shadow flicker since the Public Health Medicine Environment and Health Group published its report in 2017.

In 2019 updated draft Wind Energy Guidelines were finally published. Importantly, the Guidelines recommended that the outcome of computational modelling for the potential for shadow flicker from any proposed wind farm development should accompany all planning applications for future wind energy development.

It also allowed the planning authority (An Bord Pleanála) to impose condition(s) to ensure that no existing dwelling or other affected property will experience shadow flicker if a suitable shadow flicker prediction model indicates that there is potential for shadow flicker to occur at any dwelling, or other potentially affected property.

If shadow flicker is not eliminated, the draft Guidelines say, for any dwelling or any other potentially affected property then clearly specified measures which provide for automated turbine shut down to eliminate shadow flicker should be required as a condition of a grant of permission.

While these are welcome advances it remains a matter of frustration for the objecting communities and campaign groups that Ireland’s Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage which oversees policy in this area is still currently undertaking a focused review of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines which remain in force despite the publication of the updated Draft Guidelines in 2019.

More recently attention has shifted somewhat to a focus on the damage and environmental impacts of wind turbine blades, particularly regarding their safe disposal and the challenge this creates for the very environment they are ostensibly designed to protect from toxic carbon related harm.

The issue is still very much at the margins of the wind turbine debate in Ireland and for now at least most objections continue to relate to ‘traditional’ concerns such as those touched on above.

Given that Ireland is expected to see 11,000 tons of wind turbine blades due to be decommissioned by the end of 2025, it is unlikely this situation will continue, and it is in fact highly likely that anti-wind farm campaigners and local communities will utilise environmental objections against their initial development.

This is not to say that the Irish Government is unaware of the environmental challenges relating to wind turbine blade disposal.

To address its environmental obligations in this area it has tasked the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to participate in the International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration programme for Wind Energy, which is undertaking research on ways to minimise waste from blades and how to make wind turbine blades more recyclable.

The IEA are quite clear on the scale of the challenge and have openly accepted that although research on wind turbine blade recycling has been ongoing for more than a decade, recycling solutions are still rare with few existing solutions capable of being implemented on an industrial scale.

As a result, the IEA notes, in many countries recycling solutions beyond landfill options for wind turbine blades are not available.

There are a limited number of private companies in Ireland and Northern Ireland offering sustainable end-of-life options for decommissioned blade material, but it is highly unlikely that this number is even close to meeting the demand of recycling the estimated 11,000 tons of wind turbine blades due to be decommissioned by the end of 2025.

Options on how to address this critical deficit have been put forward by the IEA which Ireland is collaborating with. These options include various options ranging from ‘soft law,’ and ‘hard law’ and enforcing through legislation tender provisions detailing reuse and recycling requirements for wind turbine manufacturers.

The option of a Europe-wide landfill ban has also been proposed by the trade organization, Wind Europe, but as the IEA have noted, there is little point in such a move if the technological processes are not yet in place at the require scale to deal cost effectively with wind turbine blade waste. As the IEA rightly suggests, this would just push massive volumes of inert waste into storage.

At the Government level the IEA have mooted the concept of a Tender Requirements for Circularity. This option would cater for the implementation of circular economy requirements for wind turbine blade waste in government-initiated competitive tenders for the right to develop and run wind farms.

Whatever option is finally adopted to address the complex technical challenges presented by turbine blade disposal, it is clear that the issue will feature to an ever-greater degree in public discourse, especially now that the incoming Irish Government has just renewed its commitment to achieving 80% of Ireland’s electricity generation from renewable sources including wind by 2030.

The new Irish administration’s Programme for Government also details a commitment to ensure a policy is put in place to streamline the repowering and life extension of existing onshore wind farms that are nearing end of life. The fact that no mention was made of the 11,000 tons of wind turbine blades that are a key component of these wind farms nearing the end of their life has not gone unnoticed.

From the general public’s perspective however, I suspect it will not go unnoticed by for much longer, particularly if a landfill option is pursued close to a residential area.