FEARS have been expressed this week at the potential ‘saturation’ of the Donegal landscape by the on-going development of wind farms.
Currently, Donegal is the wind farm capital of Ireland with 27 operating wind farms, containing 234 turbines connected to the national grid.
These have the potential to generate a total of 280 MW of power or enough to supply 182,000 homes.
According to figures obtained by this paper from the operators of the national grid, Eirgrid, there are currently 44 further applications in the connection queue for Donegal alone.
The developer of a windfarm can apply for, and be granted, planning permission even without a connection to the grid.
In addition, Donegal County Council has confirmed to the Donegal News that it has dealt with more than 430 applications for windfarms, individual turbines and related developments in the years 1995 to 2010.
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