On Déise Today, Damien Tiernan talked to Paddy Massey, chair of ‘Blackwater Valley Wind Awareness’. Paddy was on to talk about the recent proposal by Innogy Renewables to install wind turbines in the Blackwater Valley area. The group feels that the company that they are dealing with are not co-operating with them well enough.
Paddy says ‘This is a new company in the Irish market, it’s a young office with a serious amount of ego involved”. He feels that Innogy Renewables are simply trying to bully the local community into submission.
Paddy also made it clear that he and the group can fully admit that climate change is a real thing and that something must be done. However, he feels that there are cheaper and more practical locations within Ireland that this farm should be set up.
Paddy says that offshore wind turbines are the way to go which further makes the point that they simply should not locate their wind turbines in the local area. He says that “in ten years of wind development that the cost of offshore wind development has gone, it’s down to 47 pounds per megawatt hour”. He says that this company is building one in the North Sea for the British market. However, as they are a new Irish company they want to flex their authority on the Irish market and on the community. He wants to see more communication between his group and Innogy Renewables. You can listen to the full interview here