A Co Limerick solar farm that is helping to power a local feed mill is knocked off every weekend because the ESB network is unable to take the power into the grid, the Dáil heard this week.

O’Connell’s Crecora Mills in Limerick has developed a 400kW solar farm on a two-acre site beside its mill at Castlemahon in west Limerick.

The solar farm generates around 20% of the power used by the family-owned firm, but it has the potential to supply power to the grid when the mill is not working – particularly at weekends.

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The firm contacted the ESB about getting a connection to the grid but were informed that the local substation at Rathkeale would require upgrading to take the power and that this could cost up to €3.8 million, Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue told the Dáil.

Paul O’Connell of Crecora Mills claimed the ESB indicated that an upgrade of the Rathkeale substation was unlikely in the immediate future.

The ESB was asked for a comment on this matter but had not responded to the Irish Farmers Journal at the time of going to press.

Crecora Mills supplies between 50,000t and 60,000t of ruminant feed to farmers across north Munster and into the west.

It operates from two sites in Limerick – at Crecora and Castlemahon – and also has a shop at Lissahane outside Listowel.

“Our customers are generally farmers in the mid-west and up into Galway and we use as much locally produced grain as possible. We’re grain growers ourselves,” explained O’Connell.

The solar farm in Castlemahon cost €700,000 to develop and O’Connell is very happy with its performance to date.

Indeed, the firm is considering investing a further €400,000 at the site and doubling the size of the solar farm.

“We are very satisfied with the performance of the solar farm; it’s been a great success. It just seems a waste that we have to effectively knock off power generation when the mill is not is use,” O’Connell said.

“And you’d worry about the implications for other businesses and farms in west Limerick who want to sell excess power to the grid,” he said.

O’Connell maintained that Crecora Mills could supply to the grid from the Castlemahon site if the firm paid for the upgrade of the ESB’s Rathkeale substation.

The upfront costs could be recouped later as other new customers connected, he explained.

But O'Connell said this was not feasible given that the excess power generated at Castlemahon was valued at around €20,000 per annum.

“Will Ireland ever meet its carbon reduction targets? It’s hard to believe that we can with this evidence,” O’Connell said.