Planning permission is being sought for a solar farm in Co. Kildare which will be used to power an existing mushroom facility.
Carbury Compost Unlimited Company has applied to Kildare County Council for permission to construct the solar farm which will include 54 tables of solar panels erected on ground-mounted galvanised steel frames.
The structures will be located in the southeast corner of the existing mushroom, compost and farm facility at Derrinturn, Carbury.
Solar farm
According to the planning permission application, the solar panels will be arranged facing southward with a separation distance of 5m between rows.
The development also includes ducting and underground electrical cabling, 2m-high perimeter fencing to the north and west site boundaries with associated access gate.
“The solar farm will provide electrical power to the existing facility,” the application reads.
A decision from the local authority planners is due in early October.
Carbury Compost manufactures mushroom substrate for the growing of mushrooms, along with growing, packaging and distributing the mushrooms at a facility in west Co. Kildare.
The raw materials used to manufacture mushroom substrate are straw, horse manure, poultry manure and gypsum, which are predominantly byproducts of other agri-industries such as cereal crop production, poultry production and the horse stable industry.
The company is part of Monaghan Mushrooms which employs over 3,000 people at sites in Ireland, Europe and North America.
Monaghan Mushrooms was founded by school teacher Ronnie Wilson in the early 1980s and is now among the largest fresh mushroom producers in the world, serving some of the largest international retailers.