Firm seeks permission for electricity sub-station

A BELFAST-BASED company is seeking planning permission for an electricity sub-station on the Cornavarrow Road near Drumquin as part of the £4 million Pigeon Top windfarm development.

The application by Pigeon Top Windfarm Ltd is for a 100kv sub-station with a control building and ancillary developments at Dooish.

If it is given the green light, the company says that the facility will be built over the course of a two year period in conjunction with the windfarm and would have a lifespan of 25 years. The site for the windfarm, which is being developed by TCI Renewables, of which Pigeon Top Windfarm Ltd is a subsidiary company, is located within the townlands of Legphressy, Segully and Unishinagh.

The development was originally refused planning permission in 2009 on the grounds of the visual and cumulative impact of the scheme.

But, after a submission to the Planning Appeals Commission, permission was subsequently granted in 2010.

The company behind the plan estimates that the windfarm will produce a net saving of approximately 22,900 tonnes of CO2 annually, and 570,000 over the course of its 25 year lifespan. This, they say, will equate to the equivalent electricity for 11,500 homes each year.

“The delivery of the windfarm will also bring with it an environmental enhancement scheme to help improve and regenerate the flora, fauna and habitat of the upland land mass hosting the turbines,” the company adds.

A planning amendment two years ago in 2018 required each of the nine turbines to have an overall height of 126.5 metres and a rotor diameter of 103 metres.