Revised layout sought for proposed County Roscommon battery storage facility

Further information is being sought on a proposed battery energy storage facility in the Castlerea area.

Roscommon County Council is seeking a revised layout of the development from the applicant.

Last October Roscommon County Council received a planning application from Old Mill Energy Limited, seeking a ten-year planning permission for a battery energy storage system compound containing battery energy storage containers at Knockmurry, Castlerea.

The site of the proposed development, which would have an operational lifespan of 35 years, has a total area of 0.644 hectares and the application includes one electrical substation and compound, connected to the national grid system via a circa 50 metres of underground cable to the ESB Castlerea 38kV substation. There will also be electrical transformers and inverter units, underground cabling and ducting, boundary fencing, security entrance gates, CCTV, internal access road, as well as landscaping and reinstatement works.

A decision was initially expected by December but this has now been put back to allow the company to provide the information requested.

In its letter to Old Mill Energy Limited, the local authority said that the distance between the proposed site entrance and a major cross roads junction on the R377 regional road failed to satisfy standards set out in the Roscommon County Development Plan 2022-2028. These require “that new rural entrances on regional roads should not be located within 100 metres of junctions,” the council said.

“The proposed entrance is located less than 100 metres from the junction on this section of regional road,” it continued, and it asked the company to submit a revised site layout plan to demonstrate the proposed entrance located a minimum of 100 metres from the junction.

As part of this, the company has been asked to demonstrate the maximum extent of sightlines achievable at this point, “taking into account that the required standard is 160 metres of unobstructed visibility sightlines on regional roads”.

The company has six months to respond.