Brian Stanley calls for faster solar and wind planning rules
Brian Stanley addressed the committee on the need for clear regulations and guidelines for solar farms and the long delay in updating wind farm guidance. He urged acceleration of planning rules, prioritising marginal sites and roof-mounted panels, and warned about the effects of increased private ownership of generation on prices.
Brian Stanley opened by welcoming witnesses and said the debate on regulations for solar farms is timely and overdue. He noted reliance on wind energy and argued the country should have brought forward the full range of renewables sooner, describing the failure to update wind guidelines since 2006 as a drift of a decade and a half that needs to be addressed.
He highlighted that work on noise and other considerations has largely been completed and that previous Section 28 guidelines are being translated into a National Planning Statement under the new Planning Act. He noted the National Planning Statement will require environmental assessment and full public consultation, and that the guidelines are expected next year rather than before Christmas.
Stanley recommended prioritising marginal land and former power station sites for solar development because those sites are already connected to the grid. He suggested such locations - including areas around existing power stations and locations named in his remarks - offer a way to avoid using prime agricultural land and represent a "win-win-win" for land use and grid connection.
He warned that recent grants for new farm buildings and schools had not always been accompanied by roof-mounted solar installations, despite south-facing flat roofs being suitable. Stanley said he has raised the need for solar on schools and sheds for eight or nine years and urged that future grants and building programmes factor in rooftop solar.
He closed by pointing to a structural change in generation ownership, noting the move from predominantly public generation to a largely private-owned system and linking this shift to higher electricity costs. Stanley called for stronger coordination between departments to address connection, ownership and affordability concerns.
Committee intervention and timing
Brian Stanley opened by welcoming witnesses and said the debate on regulations for solar farms is timely and overdue. He noted reliance on wind energy and argued the country should have brought forward the full range of renewables sooner, describing the failure to update wind guidelines since 2006 as a drift of a decade and a half that needs to be addressed.
Regulatory mechanism and next steps
He highlighted that work on noise and other considerations has largely been completed and that previous Section 28 guidelines are being translated into a National Planning Statement under the new Planning Act. He noted the National Planning Statement will require environmental assessment and full public consultation, and that the guidelines are expected next year rather than before Christmas.
Use of marginal land and former power stations
Stanley recommended prioritising marginal land and former power station sites for solar development because those sites are already connected to the grid. He suggested such locations - including areas around existing power stations and locations named in his remarks - offer a way to avoid using prime agricultural land and represent a "win-win-win" for land use and grid connection.
Roofs of schools and sheds as missed opportunities
He warned that recent grants for new farm buildings and schools had not always been accompanied by roof-mounted solar installations, despite south-facing flat roofs being suitable. Stanley said he has raised the need for solar on schools and sheds for eight or nine years and urged that future grants and building programmes factor in rooftop solar.
Ownership, prices and cross-departmental coordination
He closed by pointing to a structural change in generation ownership, noting the move from predominantly public generation to a largely private-owned system and linking this shift to higher electricity costs. Stanley called for stronger coordination between departments to address connection, ownership and affordability concerns.
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Transcript
Thanks very much, and just to welcome the witnesses in before the committee. Just on the need for regulations and guidelines around the solar farms, look, it's the most timely that we're having this. It's probably a discussion we should have had maybe five or six years ago in terms of bringing on the full range of renewables that can be utilised. We've been heavily dependent on wind. Of course, it should be harnessed. It's the question of how you do it. And, Paul, I know that I've dealt with you before in other committees, but I'll just ask you this. In relation to regulations, here we are doing them for solar, which is in its infancy. But wind farms are up and going, and large parts of the country have a significant number of them, and I'm a supporter of the utilisation of wind energy. But we don't have, we have 2006 guidelines, and the copies of parliamentary questions that replies that have been received for nearly 13 years now, they're the very same. I could open them up, and it's a copy and paste job. And, you know, is it your opinion that, I mean, because solar, let's face it, it doesn't have a huge impact. It has an impact. I mean, any development has an impact, and we have to accept that. And planning is a balance. But, you know, the fact that we've gone, drifted on for a decade and a half, without doing anything about putting guidelines or regulations in place around wind energy, what's happening? So, I suppose the most recent reason for not bringing forward a finalised set of guidelines was further considerations around noise. And we do have to work with our colleagues in the Department of Climate and Energy in relation to that. But I can say that, you know, that work has largely been completed at this stage, and we are in a position to translate the work that's been done to prepare what were going to be Section 28 guidelines under the previous Planning Act into a National Planning Statement. So, I might bring in my colleague, Eugene Waters, here. Let's have a few other questions, just briefly. Will we have them for Christmas? Not for Christmas, no. No, Christmas 25, no. But they are, you know, I mentioned earlier... Just briefly, when do you expect them? Next year. I mentioned that housing guidelines are a priority, and renewables are definitely... But would you agree that this is taking too long? I mean, a system that takes 15 years... Yeah, look, I would agree that it's been frustrating that there's been a number of back and forths on this, and we should have them in place by now, yeah. One sentence. Do you want to ask another question, Deputy? When will we see them? When can we expect them? After an offer for Christmas, when? So, as Paul mentioned before, one of the chapter, part three of the new Planning Act is in place now. So, the Section 28 guidelines have been overtaken by this new mechanism, which is the National Planning Statement. That brings a certain amount of requirements with it, so what we will be doing for the National Planning Statement is we'll be environmentally assessing the guidelines as is appropriate, and we'll be putting those out to full public consultation. So, at the moment, we're in the process of translating what were the guidelines to take on... In short, because of other questions, there's a long ways to go now, according to that reply. We need to accelerate it, because, you know, we're having developments without guidelines or regulations, just on wind. There's a couple of points I want to make to you. With solar, I just think that we need to be utilising, and you might give me a response on these couple of points, utilising the sites of the old power stations, because they were built on the grid. The grid was built to connect with them. They're still there. The grid's running through them sites. You have a lot of poor land around them, Port Arlington, Port Arlington, Shannon Bridge, and so on, right? There's not a road as well. There's an opportunity there to use them sites, and I just think that, you know, in terms of land use, which you address in your document, in your opening statement, I think that the use of land, rather than using prime agricultural land, which is important that we keep that, we need that for other matters, right? But I think that's important that we utilise that marginal land that just happens to be connected, you know, surrounding these power stations, that just happen to have the grid passing by. You know, it's a win-win-win situation. I just think the department, in terms of any drafting of regulations and guidelines, that you factor that in. The other thing is that we missed a trick with schools and foreign buildings, and I've been raising this in the chamber and other places for about eight or nine years now, in terms of grants dished out for foreign buildings, and that's grand, it should be, but there's fine sheds going up, south facing flat roofs on them, there should have been solar panels on them, right? And we need to end up thinking on that. And schools, there's a whole pile of new schools going up. Again, a single tilt roof on them, they should have been. And the last point I wanted to make is that 95% of our generation was publicly owned, and electricity, we had a relatively cheap electricity system. We now have moved to a situation where we're 75% private owned, and now we have one of the most expensive. And I just think, well, I know this plan on Paul that you did with in your department, but I just think, in terms of your connection with other departments, that point needs to be met, that, you know, that we try and keep control over that. Just a brief response to that point, particularly around the power stations. Yeah, look, certainly marginal land is ideal for this form of development, and we would certainly encourage that. It's a matter for the landowner to bring forward proposals, but... Or to more know a lot of it. Certainly the local authority through the development plan can identify suitability. The Red 3 directive identifies a need for go-to areas for renewables, and again, there's opportunities there. On the exemptions, we brought forward significant exemptions for public buildings like schools, libraries, hospitals in 2022, so that solar panels could be installed. And on the agricultural matter, the Department of Agriculture has the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme grant, which includes solar capital investment scheme, which I think has a cap of about £90,000. Okay, it's now in place. Under the dam scheme, that's all right. It's open for applications, yeah. Thank you. Senator Aubrey McCarty.