AN BORD Pleanála has granted planning permission to Shannon LNG Limited for a power plant with a total installed capacity of 600 megawatts.
Shannon LNG wants to construct a power plant, battery energy storage system, and re-gasification unit on a 630-acre site between Tarbert and Ballylongford in County Kerry.
Following the announcement of the planing approval, Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Limerick TD Niall Collins welcomed the planning grant, suggesting that “this facility would contribute to the resilience of our national energy supply network, which is of huge importance due to the changed international context and sudden events such as storms”.
“The electricity produced at the facility will be used as a back up to renewable energy only, helping us to guard against any interruption to our national energy supply. Energy security needs to remain near the top of our agenda.”
Earlier this month, local environmental groups vowed they will fight any such decision to allow the Shannon Estuary to be a site for an LNG fracked gas import terminal.
A coalition of environmental groups in the region claims the project would be “both a climate disaster and a betrayal of the people who helped to ban fracking in Ireland”.
The Stop Shannon LNG Coalition says a proposed terminal is to feed energy-hungry data centres and would make Ireland less energy secure by locking the country into US fracked gas for decades.
The groups are part of a grassroots movement which relies on “scientific evidence, years of campaigning, and first-hand accounts from victims of the fracking industry”.
Dr Sinead Sheehan, a campaigner with the Stop Shannon LNG coalition, said that “fracking is a public health concern, this is the reason we banned fracking in Ireland, because it is known to cause cancer through poisoning the water and the land”.
“If we support the importation of fracked gas, we lose the moral ground to maintain a ban on fracking in Ireland,” she added.
The ruling this Monday morning from An Bord Pleanála also granted permission for a 120-megawatt battery energy storage system.
An Bord Pleanála said it was granting permission, under section 37G of the Planning and Development Act 2000, subject to a lengthy series of conditions.
The decision followed a judicial review application by Shannon LNG, a subsidiary of the US-based New Fortress Energy company.
Last September, the High Court overturned a decision by An Bord Pleanála refusing permission for the gas terminal.
The planning board had ruled that it would be inappropriate to permit such a development, pending the completion of an ongoing review of energy supply.
An Bord Pleanála had said the project was “contrary to government policy and therefore contrary to the proper planning and development of the area”.
However, the High Court found that this view was based on an interpretation of policy statements and technical analysis, as opposed to a formal State directive or undertaking.
The judgment also said An Bord Pleanála failed to consider or have regard to support for the project in the Kerry County Development Plan, along with “relevant considerations” from several other plans, concerning measures to safeguard gas supply.
