A planning application is to be made to Tipperary County Council for a new solar farm near the Horse and Jockey, close to Thurles.
Mamoris Limited, trading as Killough Solar, is to seek permission for a solar farm over 222 hectares in size on lands surrounding Killough Castle.
The property was purchased last year by Coolmore Stud. The major development will consist of 745,168 square meters of solar panels and 23 transformer stations and other related infrastructure.
The formal planning application is yet to be submitted but the company published a notice in this week’s Tipperary Star and notes that the project will also include biodiversity enhancements and buffer areas to protect local bats, birds and archaeological features.
Killough Castle and tower house is a protected structure (TRPS 1029).
A separate planning application will be made for a cable to connect the solar farm to the National Grid.
The proposed substation for this connection is located close to the existing Killhill-Thurles 110kV overhead transmission power lines, travelling in a north/south direction towards the Thurles 110kV electrical substation.
The intended site is positioned approximately 1km to the east of the planned solar farm within a self-contained field.
The sub-station would be akin to a farm shed and will measure c. 715.73 sq. metres, on an enclosed site. Details are yet to be finalised but it is expected that underground ducting within the two local roads (L-4106 and L-41561) will connect the solar farm and the substation.
Tipperary County Council is understood to prefer if cabling was routed through third party lands. In the coming weeks a separate and unrelated planning application is expected for a Biomethane plant in the grounds of Killough Quarry currently operated by Roadstone.
Roadstone may lease space to an independent operator for the facility to produce energy for the company’s tar plant that would use renewable sources and produces less damaging emissions while contributing to the company’s energy needs.
