Our Community
Engagement approach
At FuturEnergy Ireland and ART Generation, we believe in speaking to the local community right from the start and continuing this engagement throughout the entire lifetime of the wind farm.
On the ground, we have Community Liaison Officer Shane Lowry. His job is to provide information and answer your queries.
Shane will be calling to houses in the local area throughout the project, distributing newsletters and making sure you get the information that you need.
Our commitment to you
- A dedicated project Community Liaison Officer, Shane Lowry (right), who you can contact directly via email or telephone. We welcome your feedback and comments
- Regular newsletter updates
- All updates added to this website
- The opportunity to meet a team specialist or consultant relevant to your query
- A full project brochure
- A Virtual Exhibition linked to this website pre-planning
Supporting a local renewable energy project comes with many benefits for the community
Community Benefit Fund
Castlebanny Wind Farm has the potential to bring positive benefits to local communities, including a Community Benefit Fund in line with industry best practice, which is the Government's Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS).
Those living in closest proximity should be priority beneficiaries and that is why some of the fund is designated for Near Neighbour payments. However, it is important that broader community benefits apply too.
Community Benefit Fund
The scheme mandates all RESS projects to establish a Community Benefit Fund worth €2 per MWh (megawatt hour) of generated electricity. Therefore, the project owners are required to contribute €2 per MWh annually for the RESS contract period i.e. the first 15 years of operation. The total fund per annum will depend on the final power output.
The ‘Good Practice Principles Handbook for Community Benefit Funds’ sets out how the funds should be used and managed. The project team intends to align all new project community benefit funds with this guidance document.
What does your community need?
When it comes to the Community Benefit Fund, communities will be at the centre of the decision-making process, which gives them the opportunity to develop a strategy to maximise the benefits.
One particular focus of the fund is to support local initiatives that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals such as home and community hall retrofits, pollinator farms, cycling paths, educational material and scholarships, and sports club activities.
Local rates contributions
Castlebanny Wind Farm will contribute an estimated €1.8 million to €2.3 million in annual rates payments to Kilkenny County Council, an important contributor in exchequer funding.
This would have a positive impact on the development of local infrastructure such as roads, public transport, lighting, street cleaning, libraries, fire services, public amenities and employment.
Education
We have embedded a holistic approach to education across all of our community engagement programmes to encourage people to learn more about climate change, the environment and the renewable energy transition. Schools near the Castlebanny project area can avail of the following:
- Bosca Dúlra: These nature boxes provided by Biodiversity in Schools are a fun nature toolkit that helps national school children explore biodiversity.
- Climate in a Box: A series of five interactive lessons on climate and sustainability created by Steam Education for national school children.
- 'Renewable Energy & Your Future': TY workshops led by our CLOs, with an emphasis on ‘climate jobs’. This may also be accompanied by a trip to a wind farm.
- Generation Change: Youth advocacy programme designed to help young people learn more about renewable energy in a non-formal education setting.
- Community workshops: Renewable energy workshops tailored to your community group.
“Thanks again for a lovely STEAM Education resource. I found the content and layout excellent so well done to all involved in the planning and development of these wonderful sessions."
"Our school was thrilled to be involved in this initiative and would recommend it to other schools as a way of teaching an important topic in a highly engaging way."
"This is an excellent programme for both children and teachers. It is very user-friendly with well-developed resources and a wide range of activities for the children to engage with."
"Many thanks for delivering an excellent presentation to the girls and for organising our visit to the wind farm. The girls truly loved it."
"The children loved the hands-on nature of the tasks and found the lessons both engaging and fascinating."
Have your say
It’s important for us to be good neighbours and we take this responsibility very seriously. We welcome feedback from the community throughout the lifetime of this project.
There are a number of ways you can do this:
- Speak to a Community Liaison Officer, either in person, by phone or via email
- Join the project webinar
- Visit the Virtual Exhibition
- Attend the in-person Community Engagement Clinic
