A Co Wexford wind farm is not appealing a High Court order requiring it to close down three wind turbines fully.
The High Court’s Mr Justice Oisín Quinn, in a judgment last month, ruled Raymond Byrne and Lorna Moorhead were entitled to orders fully shutting down three of the six turbines at the Gibbett Hill Wind Farm near Bunclody. He awarded the couple €360,000 damages, including €60,000 aggravated damages, over the turbines’ adverse impact on them.
The judge later ordered the defendants – ABO Energy Ireland Ltd and ABO Energy O&M Ireland Ltd, operators of the wind farm, along with its owner, Wexwind Ltd, all with a registered address at Cornelscourt, Dublin – to pay out €950,000 this month towards the estimated €2.3m legal costs of the couple.
The 28-day period for appealing has now expired and the couple’s law firm – Noonan Linehan Carroll Coffey Solicitors – has been informed there will be no appeal.
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The three turbines, about 1km from the couple’s home, were shut down fully last month.
In proceedings initiated seven years ago, the couple claimed the defendants wrongfully caused or permitted noise, vibration and shadow flicker to be emitted from the wind farm, which caused, and continues to cause them, stress, anxiety and sleep disturbance, “destroyed” the use and enjoyment of their property and devalued it.
The defendants had contested the claims, but last March, on the 11th day of the hearing, they admitted liability concerning claims of nuisance and switched off the turbines from 10pm to 7am daily.
At the end of the six-week case on April 4th, the defendants apologised for the nuisance and said they would also switch off the turbines from 7am to 11am at weekends and public holidays, pay damages for nuisance to date and into the future and would address shadow flicker.
In his judgment, the judge said the defendants had failed to engage “in any meaningful way” with the “genuine and substantive” complaints made by the couple over 12 years since the turbines began operating in 2013.
Addressing wind turbine noise in a substantial way was “critical” to the future success of wind as a big source of renewable energy, he said.
