Antrim farmers visit Energia’s Rathsherry wind farm
Energia Group in partnership with a local Business Development Group and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA) were delighted to facilitate a tour of Energia’s Rathsherry Wind Farm.
Energia Group in partnership with a local Business Development Group and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA) were delighted to facilitate a tour of Energia’s Rathsherry Wind Farm. Energia Wind Farm Site Supervisor, Alan Dysart, a member of his local Environmental Business Development Groups (BDG) in Co Antrim facilitated a tour of the Wind Farm for twenty BDG farmers. Rathsherry Windfarm is located off the Longmore Road in the townland of Rathsherry, outside Broughshane in County Antrim. It is a 21.15MW wind farm consisting of nine turbines and has been operational since 2018.
Since 2015, DAERA has supported over 3,000 farmers in Business Development Groups across Northern Ireland. BDGs bring like-minded farmers together to discuss business management, new technologies and innovative ways of working within their specific enterprises such as beef, sheep, dairy, arable and horticulture. Environmental BDGs were introduced in 2020 to provide farmers with an opportunity to discuss, explore, learn and implement best environmental practice for their farms. 433 farmers participate in the Environmental BDG groups. Topics covered include soil health, controlling ammonia emissions, protecting water quality, agroforestry, biodiversity enhancement, hedgerow management and more recently renewable energy generation.
Alan shared his insights into the complexities involved in developing wind farm projects and explained the challenges that must be overcome to deliver effective renewable projects. Alan, who is himself a farmer and a member of the BDG, compared single turbine installation on individual farms to a utility-scale operation like Rathsherry. He also explained how wind farm operators work with landowners to ensure farming of the land can continue in line with planning conditions, through the implementation of habitat management plans.
Henry Shaw, an agri-environment adviser from the College of Agriculture Food & Rural Enterprise, CAFRE, said, “The farmers were keen to understand the renewable industry more fully to find out how wind farm technology works, to hear about the potential of hydrogen as a fuel and to understand the practicalities, pitfalls and future context for their home farms. It was also of interest to the group that the wind farm uses low noise turbine technology.”
This visit was an important component of the overall environmental BDG programme and contributed greatly to the broad awareness of environmental issues that the BDG programme seeks to develop and of the options farmers can draw on to create a viable and balanced response to environmental concerns that they face. To build on the success of the site visit further educational site visits will be facilitated for other environmental BDGs throughout the year
The Business Development Groups scheme is part funded by DAERA and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
To find out more about Rathsherrry Wind Farm, please visit our project page:
