AMASS

AMASS - Abbeyknockmoy & Monivea Against Solar Sprawl

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[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

This fantastic documentary covers everything AMASS has been living through on the ground - unregulated battery storage, the Claregalway BESS fire, a broken planning system where it's citizens vs. the state, and the real cost of Ireland's energy policy.

The Price Of Power is a full, ground-level investigation into how Ireland became one of the most expensive places in Europe to keep the lights on.

Watch it. Share it. This is the conversation Ireland needs to be having.

▶️ https://t.co/OCTC1daL8y

#AMASS #ThePriceOfPower #IrishEnergy #BESS #Documentary #CommunityFirst

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

AMASS has today put Galway County Council on formal notice over the Bellville Solar project.

This letter exposes the shifting consenting route, the alleged removal of project lands in Oakwood South, which PCRE have had a long-standing stated interest in and which are now under intense legal pressure from AMASS and the community, the pretence that enforcement history is “N/A,” and the obvious risk of project-splitting if BESS, substation and grid works are pushed into separate applications.

The Council cannot let a major industrial energy scheme be repackaged as a “new” solar project while its real history is quietly airbrushed away. The community deserves transparency, proper assessment, and an end to this nonsense.

This project is being conducted in a manner whereby the developer is intent on keeping the community in the dark, and any attempts at consultation have been ham-fisted and purely tokenistic.
Read the full letter now on our website:
https://t.co/lbNNcovwj1

@GalwayCoCo @power_capital @OmnesCapital

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

Public consultation on the Belleville / Monivea solar project has not begun.

@power_capital has told media it is “wholly and absolutely” committed to community engagement and “a second” public consultation. That language assumes there was a first one.

On the ground, residents do not accept that any fit‑for‑purpose public consultation has taken place.

- The June 2025 event was not open, transparent or targeted at those most affected. Many residents living beside the proposed sites never received a letter, while others several kilometres away did, despite prior assurances by @power_capital to @GalwayCoCo that neighbouring residents would be directly notified. On any fair view, that falls short of a meaningful public consultation.
- When residents asked basic questions about who was contacted, how the mailing list was compiled, and how feedback would shape the design, @power_capital repeatedly refused to give clear, written answers. At one point, the company told residents it did not even have to consult them – effectively admitting that consultation was being treated as a box‑ticking exercise, not a genuine dialogue.
- @power_capital has now briefed that lands at Oakwood South are “not part of the project”, even though those same lands are included in its own pre‑planning maps and website material and are now at the centre of enforcement and community‑initiated Section 154 and Section 160 proceedings. @GalwayCoCo and @pleanala have both confirmed that Oakwood South was within the maps submitted for pre‑planning by @power_capital.

The ISEA Best Practice Guidance Report on Solar Energy Development for Applicants and Planning Authorities is clear: “All consultation should be conducted in an open and transparent manner.” That standard has not been met. In the view of this community, what has happened to date is null and void as “consultation”.

Yes, non‑statutory consultation is not mandatory. But once a developer chooses to rely on it in the media and in planning processes, they do not get to claim the box is ticked when the basic requirements of openness, transparency and inclusion have not been met.

Until @power_capital:
- writes directly to all affected households, not a selective subset;
- holds properly advertised, in‑person events that people can actually attend;
- publishes full, honest maps showing all lands used in pre‑planning, including those now under enforcement; and
- answers straight questions with straight answers;

AMASS will continue to say that public consultation on this project has yet to commence.
Latest coverage here:

https://t.co/vTcq52u3EV

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

AMASS has today put Galway County Council on formal notice over the Bellville Solar project.

This letter exposes the shifting consenting route, the alleged removal of project lands in Oakwood South, which PCRE have had a long-standing stated interest in and which are now under intense legal pressure from AMASS and the community, the pretence that enforcement history is “N/A,” and the obvious risk of project-splitting if BESS, substation and grid works are pushed into separate applications.

The Council cannot let a major industrial energy scheme be repackaged as a “new” solar project while its real history is quietly airbrushed away. The community deserves transparency, proper assessment, and an end to this nonsense.

This project is being conducted in a manner whereby the developer is intent on keeping the community in the dark, and any attempts at consultation have been ham-fisted and purely tokenistic.
Read the full letter now on our website:
https://t.co/lbNNcovwj1

@GalwayCoCo @power_capital @OmnesCapital

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

In the @Independent_ie and the @TuamHerald @power_capital said Oakwood South had nothing to do with their solar project.
Their own pre-planning documents, submitted to planning authorities, say otherwise.

We have the records. Read our full press release
https://t.co/fr1zgNb1Wn

@OmnesCapital

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

A local solar promoter faces a S154 enforcement notice & a S160 injunction for unauthorised works on lands @power_capital has a "long-standing stated interest in."

But @power_capital's website says: "No works have been carried out." Their consultation map has vanished. The community fund shrank from €20m to €5m.

We filled the gap.

#AMASS
@OmnesCapital @power_capital

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

AMASS Escalates Fight Against Solar Sprawl – New Letter to EirGrid Demands Accountability!

Today, 17 April 2026, we've formally written to @EirGrid's CEO Cathal Marley and Chief Governance Officer Martin Corrigan, calling out the shocking gap between their published stakeholder engagement promises and the reality faced by Abbeyknockmoy, Monivea and Ballyglunin communities.

EirGrid boasts "communities at the heart of decision-making" with liaison officers, forums, and benefit funds for their projects.

But for developer-led grid infrastructure like the massive Bellville Solar substation? ZERO engagement. No liaison, no forums, no early consultation and Galway doesn't even appear in their 2026 plan!

We've experienced:
Refused AIE requests on "commercial sensitivity" grounds
No community input before sites were locked in
Total silence on grid connection impacts

AMASS demands answers within 14 days: project status, engagement records, a named contact, and full transparency.

We're not against renewables – we're against secretive, two-tier processes that sideline rural voices. Read the full letter and join the fight!

#AMASS #SolarSprawl #EirGrid #EastGalway #CommunityVoice #BellvilleSolar

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

In keeping with @OmnesCapital's track record of scrubbing tweets, @power_capital is now doing the same. The long-standing map on their "virtual consultation room" - you know, the one that showed their project site in Oakwood South – the very lands that are subject to Enforcement and Injunction Actions – the ones PCRE claims have “no connection to Power Capital, nor to any current or future plans of the company.” That map. Yes. It’s gone. Deleted.

Thankfully the internet NEVER forgets.

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

EirGrid says communities are "at the heart of our decision making."

Their own 2025 Stakeholder Engagement Report shows that for EirGrid-led projects, host communities receive:

✅ Dedicated Community Liaison Officers and Agriculture Liaison Officers on the ground
✅ Community forums established for every major project
✅ Early engagement before sites are chosen
✅ Door-to-door information events and public drop-in days
✅ Community Benefit Funding: €1.6 million awarded to 82 local groups along the Celtic Interconnector alone

EirGrid even funded three years of academic research with UCC's MaREI Centre, which concluded that early, inclusive engagement is essential to Ireland's energy transition.

But when a private developer brings forward a 220kV substation through the grid connection process, those standards disappear.

There is typically:
❌ No community benefit fund tied to the substation or grid connection infrastructure
❌ No dedicated liaison officer
❌ No structured community forum
❌ No early engagement before sites are effectively chosen

Instead, communities are left reacting. Land agreements are signed, connection strategies are advanced, and key decisions are already made.

And when communities seek answers using their legal rights under the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations, they are met with refusals on grounds of commercial sensitivity, even though the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information has previously ruled that EirGrid's statutory confidentiality obligations do not supersede the AIE Regulations, and that EirGrid can be required by law to disclose environmental information.

EirGrid's own report states:

"Early engagement is vital to ensure that people's concerns are listened to."
"It is only with public and stakeholder support that we can achieve our climate action targets."

So why are communities hosting developer-led substations excluded from the same standards EirGrid applies to its own infrastructure?

That is not energy transition.
That is energy imposition.

https://t.co/fAR6uZcWxa

@EirGrid @power_capital @OmnesCapital

#CommunityEngagement #EnergyTransition #PlanningTransparency #RuralIreland #CountyGalway #AMASS

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

EirGrid says communities are "at the heart of our decision making."

Their own 2025 Stakeholder Engagement Report shows that for EirGrid-led projects, host communities receive:

✅ Dedicated Community Liaison Officers and Agriculture Liaison Officers on the ground
✅ Community forums established for every major project
✅ Early engagement before sites are chosen
✅ Door-to-door information events and public drop-in days
✅ Community Benefit Funding: €1.6 million awarded to 82 local groups along the Celtic Interconnector alone

EirGrid even funded three years of academic research with UCC's MaREI Centre, which concluded that early, inclusive engagement is essential to Ireland's energy transition.

But when a private developer brings forward a 220kV substation through the grid connection process, those standards disappear.

There is typically:
❌ No community benefit fund tied to the substation or grid connection infrastructure
❌ No dedicated liaison officer
❌ No structured community forum
❌ No early engagement before sites are effectively chosen

Instead, communities are left reacting. Land agreements are signed, connection strategies are advanced, and key decisions are already made.

And when communities seek answers using their legal rights under the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations, they are met with refusals on grounds of commercial sensitivity, even though the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information has previously ruled that EirGrid's statutory confidentiality obligations do not supersede the AIE Regulations, and that EirGrid can be required by law to disclose environmental information.

EirGrid's own report states:

"Early engagement is vital to ensure that people's concerns are listened to."
"It is only with public and stakeholder support that we can achieve our climate action targets."

So why are communities hosting developer-led substations excluded from the same standards EirGrid applies to its own infrastructure?

That is not energy transition.
That is energy imposition.

https://t.co/fAR6uZcWxa

@EirGrid @power_capital @OmnesCapital

#CommunityEngagement #EnergyTransition #PlanningTransparency #RuralIreland #CountyGalway #AMASS

[Pooks @PookiePokey]

Action needed. 🇮🇪

[Ailicia M @AliciaM290425]

It was never green … it was always about the money …

[Caìt Ni Mhac @KatieMa13594308]

@OmnesCapital @power_capital Well let's see how this goes for them. We SEE you! @IFAmedia @independent_ire @AontuIE @1PaulLawless

[Tom Hutchinson @TomHutc36490321]

I have farmer friends & I can tell you that this "call to door sales" campaign by solar panel firms IS going on..
RELENTLESSLY!
One farmer said he had 3 calls to his door 3 by companies on 1 day.

He suspects 2 calls from the same company. Different reps.
https://t.co/15TUAdE20u

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

Cute framing. But food security vs energy security is a false choice - and you know it.

Nobody is saying don't build renewables. We're saying don't build them on the finest arable tillage land in Co. Galway. Land that grows barley and oats. Land that carries dairy herds and suckler cows. Year in, year out.

And before someone replies "but Ireland imports 90% of its food" - that's whataboutism, not an argument. The answer to food import dependency is to grow more food at home, not to concrete over the land that's actually doing it.

The so-called green agenda wants us to rip out productive Irish farmland and cover it with Chinese-manufactured solar panels (fabricated off the energy of coal and human rights violations), so we can fly in the food we no longer grow ourselves. That's not green. That's a different kind of dependency - and a different set of shareholders getting rich off it.

Real energy security and real food security are not enemies. But, handing our best farmland to French private equity is the enemy of both.
#fuelprotest #AMASS #NoSolarOnTillageLand #GalwayFarmers #FuelProtests

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

This week, farmers blocked roads across Ireland to say enough is enough on the so-called "green" agenda. Here in Co. Galway, we don't need to block a road to show you what that agenda looks like up close.

It looks like a French private equity firm @OmnesCapital and their local proxy @power_capital targeting the finest arable tillage land in the county for industrial solar panels, BESS, and a 220kV substation - calling to farmers' doors 8 and 9 times to pressure them into signing up.

It looks like a Christmas Day rampage through our community, pulling down protest signs and damaging private property.

It looks like illegal works carried out without licence or permission around a recorded monument in Oakwood South - works that @NationalMons has called "unauthorised" and in contravention to the National Monuments (Amendment) Act.

It looks like @power_capital telling @Independent_ie that enforcement action on lands within their own stated project site has "no connection" to them - then running a full-page @TuamHerald ad naming the exact same townland days later.

And it looks like @pleanala case VC61.323452, which is on the public record and names Power Capital Developments Ltd as applicant for that substation - tied to Folio GY52584F, the same folio on PCRE's own red line project map in Oakwood South, where Galway Co. Co. has issued a S.154 enforcement notice and four local residents have been forced to take a S.160 injunction to protect their land and their community.

The farmers on the road this week were right. The targeted campaign of driving a "green" agenda via harassment and intimidation in our community is exactly what they were protesting. We stand with them.
#AMASS #NoSolarOnTillageLand #GalwayFarmers #FuelProtests

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

Galway County Council has issued an enforcement notice for unauthorised works on lands tied to the proposed Bellville Solar project.

@power_capital says it has "no connection" to the matter.
Their own maps in the article say otherwise.

📷 Irish Independent, today.
https://t.co/bXM1SWEDPt

@rtenews @IrishTimes @NewstalkFM @IrishExaminer @griptmedia @virginmedia @AgrilandIreland
@Galwaybayfmnews @CTribune @AnTaisce @EPAIreland @GalwayCoCo
@OmnesCapital @EIB

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

"Is this really the model of Green Development that Ireland wants?"

A message from our Chairman on another significant week for AMASS.

@power_capital @OmnesCapital @EIB @GalwayCoCo
#AMASS #Galway #StopSolarSprawl #CommunityEngagement

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

This fantastic documentary covers everything AMASS has been living through on the ground - unregulated battery storage, the Claregalway BESS fire, a broken planning system where it's citizens vs. the state, and the real cost of Ireland's energy policy.

The Price Of Power is a full, ground-level investigation into how Ireland became one of the most expensive places in Europe to keep the lights on.

Watch it. Share it. This is the conversation Ireland needs to be having.

▶️ https://t.co/OCTC1daL8y

#AMASS #ThePriceOfPower #IrishEnergy #BESS #Documentary #CommunityFirst

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

"Is this really the model of Green Development that Ireland wants?"

A message from our Chairman on another significant week for AMASS.

@power_capital @OmnesCapital @EIB @GalwayCoCo
#AMASS #Galway #StopSolarSprawl #CommunityEngagement

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

📷 Unauthorised works. A recorded monument damaged. And @power_capital 's own website says "no works have been carried out."
Four local residents have taken a Section 160 court injunction against unauthorised land clearance at Oakwood South- lands within PCRE's proposed Bellville Solar footprint.
Galway County Council has backed this up with Enforcement Notice EN25/202, and the National Monuments Service confirms the damage to a protected earthwork happened without their knowledge.
We stand with the four residents who put themselves on the line to protect this community.
📷 Full press release: https://t.co/fr1zgNb1Wn

@OmnesCapital
#Abbeyknockmoy #Monivea #BellvilleSolar #AMASS #NoSolarSprawl #GalwayPlanning