By Jonathan Magee
DONEGAL County Council has recommended refusal of planning permission for a major battery energy storage facility near Letterkenny, after finding that the applicant failed to adequately address a direct conflict with the TEN-T Priority Route Improvement Project.
The Donegal National Roads Office warned the council that lands within the application site are subject to compulsory purchase under the TEN-T project’s associated compulsory purchase order (CPO), and that the existing N13 access on which the entire development depends is to be permanently closed once the TEN-T scheme is constructed.
Despite this, the application contained no adequate provision for how the facility would be accessed after that closure, with the planning report finding that a vague acknowledgement that a future planning application would be required fell well short of what was needed.
The National Roads Office (NRO) expressed serious concern that the development, as submitted, could place a direct constraint on the construction and operation of the TEN-T scheme, which represents a government investment of more than €800 million in Donegal’s road network and includes long-awaited relief road provision for Letterkenny.
The council concluded that permitting the development in its current form would materially prejudice the delivery of that strategically critical infrastructure.
The application was submitted by Peter Henry on behalf of Renewable Energy Systems Limited (RES Ltd), represented by agent Michelle Price. The company sought permission to construct a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) with an installed capacity of up to 120MW on a 6.1-hectare site at Listillion, approximately three to four kilometres south-east of Letterkenny, adjacent to the existing 110kV Letterkenny Substation.
The proposed access via an upgraded agricultural laneway onto the N13 National Primary Road was a second and separate ground for refusal.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland advised the council that the proposal would intensify an existing direct access onto a national road with a 100 kilometres-per-hour speed limit, in breach of national guidelines that seek to prevent additional traffic movements onto high-speed national roads.
The Area Roads Engineer raised further concerns, noting that no TII approval had been furnished for the Site Entrance Design Report, that the application was premature, and that the ‘left-in, left-out’ access arrangement had not adequately addressed the implications for construction traffic on nearby local roads.
Senior Executive Planner Frank Sweeney, who signed off on the report on May 27, 2026, noted that the council accepted the principle of BESS development at the location, given its proximity to the Letterkenny substation, and acknowledged strong national and local policy support for energy storage infrastructure.
However, the unresolved road access and TEN-T conflicts were found to be fatal to the application as submitted.