jonny farrell

[jonny farrell @jonnyfarrell2]

Woodland Winter Wonderland in aid of Jack & Jill https://t.co/JkLlx1HQ1T

[Declan Ganley @declanganley]

The Editor,
The Irish Times,
24-28 Tara Street,
Dublin 2.
Dear Editor,
I am writing regarding your special report “Here comes the sun: Solar adoption gathers pace in Ireland” (1 July 2026), in which Power Capital Renewable Energy (PCRE) chief executive Justin Brown suggests opposition to “one or two” projects comes from “a noisy minority”. As a resident of Abbeyknockmoy‑Monivea in Co Galway, where PCRE (backed by Omnes Capital) is proposing a c.1,000‑acre solar farm with associated battery storage, that description does not accord with reality.
Abbeyknockmoy & Monivea Against Solar (AMASS), referenced in the article, is an organic, grassroots movement supported by well over a thousand people across the parish. Residents have gone door to door across the area and surrounding impacted lands, raised thousands of euro to mount a legal challenge to unauthorised pre‑works, and engaged with a range of experts on the net negative impacts of the proposal on farmland, heritage, biodiversity, visual amenity, property values and BESS safety. Many are strongly supportive of rooftop solar, community‑led projects and responsible climate action; their objection is to how industrial‑scale infrastructure is being imposed on a rural community with minimal regard for process or fit.
There was no meaningful early engagement. A small number of households, Including some more than 3km from the proposed arrays , received letters with barely a day’s notice of a “consultation” event, while hundreds of properties directly affected by the scheme received nothing. Since then, PCRE has consistently shied away from meaningful and fit‑for‑purpose public consultation, relying instead on an online “virtual consultation room” and isolated one‑to‑one sessions, a model that discriminates against many parishioners and keeps residents in the dark about the cumulative impact if the project proceeds.

Your report also omits the well-documented campaign of vandalism, intimidation and threats faced by local families who have opposed the scheme. On Christmas Day 2025, an individual was caught on camera vandalising private property and destroying objection signs, including outside family homes; similar incidents have occurred repeatedly, and An Garda Síochána have had to attend the area on multiple occasions. In parallel, unauthorised land clearance and rock crushing pre-work continued unabated at a recorded monument, resulting in documented damage and despite an open enforcement file with Galway County Council. These are not abstract planning concerns; they are lived realities for people trying to protect their homes and heritage.
PCRE has publicly announced long‑term power purchase agreements with major data‑centre operators such as Google[1] and Microsoft[2]for other Irish solar farms, underlining that large corporate energy demand is a central driver of its portfolio. Rural villages like ours are being asked to absorb the full environmental, social and safety burden so that global technology companies with no stake in the locality can arbitrage “green” power off the back of distressed communities.
In that context, dismissing our opposition as a “noisy minority” is inaccurate and unfair. Rural communities are being asked to host significant new energy infrastructure at scale. Fair and balanced coverage requires acknowledging not only developer and industry perspectives but also the full range of community experience, including intimidation on the ground and the absence of basic standards of consultation and governance.
Yours sincerely,
Declan J. Ganley,
(Address and phone number provided).

[1] Anda, A. (2023). Google’s clean energy progress in Ireland. [online] Google. Available at: https://t.co/QczxSBEWzH 2 Jul. 2026].

[2] European Investment Bank. (n.d.). Ireland: €240 million financing facility secured by solar developer Power Capital Renewable Energy from an Eiffel Investment Group led set of investors to construct over 1.2 GW of solar assets and expand internationally. [online] Available at: https://t.co/TNu8bnFoC1 2 Jul. 2026].

[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

[Declan Ganley @declanganley]

The #FuelProtest in Galway Port tonight raising the tricolour high. Just in the last few minutes. 🇮🇪☘️

[Declan Ganley @declanganley]

Here tonight at Galway Port at the #FuelProtest, this is a peaceful, organised, kind and highly committed crowd. ☘️

[Declan Ganley @declanganley]

Taking here now with ‘Justin’, a local Galway City man who has joined the protest this evening at Galway Port. Have a listen, he speaks for many #FuelProtest

[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]

@TheJournal_ie Your BESS "FactCheck" omits EPRI 100+ incidents, Moss Landing metals contamination, NFCC guidance on unextinguishable fires & Irish agencies' AIE admissions of no BESS records.
Industry PR, not facts. Letter to @SineadOCarroll with evidence attached. Public safety demands better.
#AMASS #BESS

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

Farmers have been sold a pup: Under the EU Polluter Pays Principle (binding in Ireland), YOU pay to clean toxic solar wreckage when PE vultures like @OmnesCapital and @power_capital flip their projects & bail. Don't sign. Don't let them in. #GalwaySolarScam #FarmersFirst #AMASS

https://t.co/RztCaUUzbX

[Declan Ganley @declanganley]

Glad to see @GalwayCoCo has invalidated the proposed Moyvilla industrial solar planning application from absentee solarlords @OmnesCapital and @power_capital because parts of it were and I quote from the document (which I have seen) “misleading to the public".

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

🚨 This week, Irish radio presented three 'experts' to tell Galway residents their BESS safety concerns are overblown. The implied suggestion is that we roll over to the targeted campaign of intimidation and harassment and simply "let this happen."

❌ @higginsdavidw - economist
❌ @OisinCoghlan - sociology & political science degree
❌ @think_or_swim - journalist

None hold qualifications in physics, engineering, environmental science, battery technology or energy systems. But they're telling us we should allow a company - caught out on a lie about its BESS operational expertise to roll into town and do as it pleases.

Now meet someone actually qualified to speak.
✅ Dr. C. Michael Hogan

BSc Physics - Princeton
PhD Physics - Stanford
NASA Apollo heat shield design team
1,210 peer-reviewed publications in atmospheric physics & energy policy
Former adviser to the US President and Congress on environmental science

He investigated the Moss Landing BESS disaster.

▶️ Watch what he found

Full Interview Credit: California Insider https://t.co/dsGC0OSb1w

#AMASS #BESSSafety #Galway #StopSolarSprawl #IrishMedia
@NewstalkFM @TodayFM @Independent_ie @OmnesCapital @power_capital

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

Government says: “We need 8 GW of solar by 2030 to save the planet and secure energy.”
Also Government: “Nah, we’re rejecting 90% of farmers’ solar grant applications - while foreign investors are welcomed to build industrial‑scale solar and BESS projects on prime farmland with open arms and no regulations.”

https://t.co/hDyKQLLaGJ

@NewstalkFM @TheHardShoulder @rtenews @Galwaybayfmnews @farmersjournal

[jonny farrell @jonnyfarrell2]

@higginsdavidw @Independent_ie David - the next time you're visiting your family in East Galway, please call in to us for a cup of tea in Cregmore. No strings attached. No hidden agenda. Just an opportunity to see things from our perspective.

[jonny farrell @jonnyfarrell2]

@higginsdavidw @NewstalkFM A debate is when 2 turn up.
Very well spoken Brendan @AMASSMOVEMENT

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

Thank you David for confirming that you are an “independent economist”.

May we respectfully suggest that you tread humbly outside of your strictly economic profession when discussing matters pertaining to health and safety associated with battery energy storage systems, the lack of regulatory oversight thereof, and biodiversity impacts of utility scale solar developments. To date, you appear to be acting ultra vires in your commentary on these matters.

You have also refused to engage on one of the key aspects of the project you are promoting, namely the real and focused campaign of intimidation and vandalism that has been waged against our community.

[Ruairi Fahy 🇦🇲🇬🇪🇬🇷🇨🇾 ⭐️ @ruairijfahy]

Placing solar panels on Irish agricultural land is one of the dumbest, destructive and intellectually vacuous approaches to generating electricity. It is driven solely by grant funding of so called green energy companies and is paid for by Irish citizens thorouh the highest electricity prices in Europe, and possibly the world. Build nuclear, and gas fired power stations for reliable cheap energy. Keep solar on roofs and car parks.

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

@higginsdavidw @Independent_ie Before labelling rural Galway communities as NIMBYs, perhaps try speaking to them first. Our formal response to today's column is attached. If you'd like to understand how these projects are actually conducted, we'd invite you to review the correspondence with @power_capital @OmnesCapital at https://t.co/vBguY3A2tM. The full story is rather more instructive than the one you chose to tell.

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

@higginsdavidw
@Independent_ie
Before labelling rural Galway communities as NIMBYs, perhaps try speaking to them first. Our formal response to today's column is attached. If you'd like to understand how these projects are actually conducted, we'd invite you to review the correspondence with
@power_capital
@OmnesCapital
at https://t.co/WazRhZzglO. The full story is rather more instructive than the one you chose to tell.

[Declan Ganley @declanganley]

So make ourselves dependent on Communist Chinese supply chains instead? How do you think that’s going to work out? Why should a sizeable rural community with massive familial, cultural and economic investment in an area agree to blight their parish with a thousand acres of Chinese solar glass, a battery storage facility incapable of being safely extinguished if it goes into meltdown and all to supply @OmnesCapital’s (a French private equity company) two multinational off-take customers for their data centre on the outskirts of Dublin? Add to this that solar in Ireland without massive subsidies is non-viable (we need cheap power not more subsidised power), the fact that there is nothing in this for the community other than a big drop in the value and amenity of our homes and farms and a blight on our landscape (not to mention the serious environmental risks) and you will start to understand. Then understand something else, for months and even on Christmas Day, certain of those inventivised to make this happen, went around intimidating local families, vandalising property and inflicting a climate of fear. All for the cause you are promoting. Then there are the works commenced without any planning or consultation, like rules are for the little people.
We want power that is cheap, abundant and smart. In Ireland, solar ain’t it. You want to cut over reliance on imports? Drill for gas, build SMR’s, build off shore tidal. This solar push is a racket that in our case even comes with ‘enforcers’, I’ve been watching up close.

[Declan Ganley @declanganley]

The French PE firm and absentee SolarLords @OmnesCapital continue their campaign to force their Chinese solar panel blight onto our local parish. Unfortunately for them, the vandalism and intimidation that was inflicted on this community over Christmas only stiffened the resolve of local families to save our community and landscape:
‘Protestors in Galway urge review of solar farm plans after fears area could become ‘Chernobyl of Ireland’ https://t.co/f2wl5qIGWV

[AMASS @AMASSMOVEMENT]

🚨 BESS SAFETY CONCERNS GOING MAINSTREAM

Cork documentary maker Kevin Collins is covering battery storage in his upcoming energy documentary "When Time Ran Out"

Key points from this clip:
❌ No battery regulator in Ireland
❌ Large lithium fire in Clare-Galway took DAYS to control
❌ 1,700 students evacuated from 3 schools
❌ EPA never went on site, never tested

These shipping container-sized batteries are being installed across Ireland to store renewable energy - with no independent safety standards.

Glad to see these issues finally getting the attention they deserve.

Full interview with Eddie Hobbs Counterpoint, Feb 2026

@RealEddieHobbs
#AMASS #BESSSafety #EnergyPolicy #Community