Submission from the Office of the Planning Regulator (Submission No 426)
Issues / Recommendations / Observations
Chief Executive’s Resp onse & Recommendation
change mitigation, and in particular wind energy production and the potential wind energy resource (in megawatts).
Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) will set out a target for the total onshore capacity that should be planned for on a national and regional level. National renewable energy objectives, and those set out in the regional strategies, should be reflected in County Development Plans, which are evaluated and assessed by the Office of the Planning Regulator. Cork City Council will fully engage with this process and the text of the Draft Plan will be updated to reflect these recommendations. It is also intended that a new Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan (OREDP II) will be completed to quantify the offshore renewable energy potential in Ireland’s maritime area, which will also provide an evidence base for the assessment of areas suitable for deployment of offshore renewable energy. The City Council will also feed into this process. Full support for the development of renewable energies such as solar, geothermal, heat pumps and district heating (subject to development management criteria) is set out in: Sections 5.27-5.34, Objectives 5.7, 5.16, 5.17, 5.18, 5.19, 5.20 and 5.21 of Chapter 5; Sections 9.18-9.20 and Objectives 9.12 and 9.14 of Chapter 9 and Sections 11.245-11.250 of Chapter 11. These policies and objectives will be amended, where conflicts or confusion might exist such as Objective 9.14 to clarify that “wind” refers to “small/microscale”. It is agreed that the Plan can be amended to better facilitate the implementation of district heating. It is recommended to amend paragraphs 5.18 and 5.28 to strengthen the Plan content on renewable energy policy. Specifically in relation to items (i) and (ii) of the OPR’s recommendation and the SPPR of the Interim Guidelines for Planning Authorities on Statutory Plans, Renewable Energy and Climate Change and Wind Energy Development Guidelines 2006 – Update on Review (July 2017), Section 11.245 of the Draft Plan states that applications for renewable energy will be considered in the context of current government policy, with the relevant wind energy guidelines referenced in Section 11.246. In terms of the potential for wind energy generation in the City Council functional area, Section 11.246 of the Draft Plan states that due to its largely built-up nature and proximity to residential areas,
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