[ Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028, Section 15(2) Two-Year Progress Report ]
Figure 70: ESB – Capital Projects
Significant investment in capital projects in Cork City are planned to meet capacity requirements including • Togher – Trabeg 38 kV cable circuit replacement • Bus Eireann 6 MVA electrification project
2023-2024
Significant future investment is planned to meet growing electricity capacity demands, including • Upgrade of existing substations, including Trabeg 110 kV substation. • Cable replacement projects including Dennehy’s Cross, Liberty Street and Kilbarry – Fairhill 38 kV circuits
2025+
[OBJECTIVE 9.15] RENEWABLE ENERGY
The Cork City Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2024 – 2029 adopted in February 2024 sets out how national policy relating to climate change adaptation and mitigation will be implemented at the local level. The CAP establishes 129 actions grouped under five themes, which provide a framework to address the challenges associated with climate change. One of the five themes relates to the ‘built environment and energy’. Some of the relevant actions under the built environment and energy theme include: • Establishing a Cork City Building Retrofitting and Renewables Task Force to accelerate retrofitting programmes for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial buildings. • Assessing the suitability of all rooftops in the city for renewables or green roofs , and implement where viable. • Completing the current Energy Performance Contract programme and extend the model to further publicly owned buildings. • Completing an Investment Grade Audit (IGA) for the City Hall campus. • Collaborating with the private sector to develop large scale investment in renewable energy projects . • Modelling retrofitting and renewable installations for a selection of heritage buildings. Cork City Council operate a Community Climate Action Fund for projects that deliver a direct positive impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and/or helping communities adapt to the consequences of climate change. The €840,000 fund allocated to Cork City by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) was oversubscribed by more than twice. There are broad exemptions under planning regulations for the installation of renewable technologies including, and relevant in the case of Cork City, domestic solar installations. The Government introduced new planning exemptions for the installation of solar panels in October 2022. This results in low planning permission figures for equipment like solar panels, however observational evidence indicates healthy take up on solar panels across the city generally. Nevertheless, there were 20 planning permissions granted that included or comprised fully of solar panels, comprising a range of scales across commercial and residential developments.
128
Powered by FlippingBook