Farmers could earn between €30,000 and €40,000 per year by leasing their land for a wind turbine.

This is according to John McGarry, director of LP3, a company that specialises in finding sites for wind and solar farms.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the annual Wind Energy Ireland conference in Dublin last week, he stressed that wind farms comprise far more than turbines alone.

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They include substations, access tracks, cabling and set-down areas, each of which may involve different landowners and contractual arrangements.

This could potentially be a record-breaking year for wind energy. Attendees at the conference heard that 451MW of new wind farms are currently under construction.

A further 1,246MW of wind farms are ready for the next renewables auction or seeking a corporate power purchase agreement, and a further 2,112MW is now in the planning system.

Currently, around 5,000MW of onshore wind capacity is installed in the Republic of Ireland.

Turbine sites

McGarry explained that, as things stand, turbines need to be four times the tip height of the turbine from any property.

He said that this requirement can make finding turbine sites extremely challenging, as it can wipe out huge volumes of areas from consideration.

These requirements could be set to change, however, as new planning guidelines are in development.

Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, explained that consultation on wind energy guidelines is expected in 2026, and hoped that they will be in place before year end.

Cunniffe explained that one of the biggest problems in recent years has been how county development plans designated areas for renewable energy, with some plans effectively ruling out large parts of counties from renewable development.

Opening the conference, Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy Darragh O’Brien said local development plans cannot be allowed to sterilise areas for renewables.

He added that new regional renewable electricity capacity allocations will ensure national renewable policy is reflected at regional level. Cunniffe said that climate law has changed, so that local development plan policy can no longer automatically override national or European objectives.