Two massive energy domes planned for bog site in north Offaly

A DECISION is expected from Offaly County Council planners next week on two massive domes proposed for a site near Rhode.

Permission to erect the 500-metre domes is being sought by Tullamore-based company Rhode LDES Ltd which is headed by Nigel Reams of Lumcloon Energy.

The domes will store carbon dioxide and provide a means of storing energy which can be released into the national electricity grid when required.

Like battery energy storage systems already delivered by Lumcloon Energy, the storage domes aim to aid the transition to renewable sources of electricity like wind and solar.

Carbon dioxide is stored in a liquid state and then expanded into an electricity generating turbine. Each dome will hold over 1.3 million cubic metres of carbon dioxide.

It is proposed to locate two domes side by side adjacent to the Rhode Energy Park which is on the site of the former peat-fired power station.

The domes, designed by an Italian company Energy Dome, will be 500 metres long, 120 metres wide and up to 34 metres high.

If given the go-ahead, they will be clearly visible from the summit of Croghan Hill and other places in the area.

In all, the development will cover 22 hectares, some of which was used for ash from the demolished power station.

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A report with the planning application acknowledges that the “development represents substantial twin structures that have no particular precedence in the rural landscape” of the Midlands.

“Notwithstanding, this is a broad and productive landscape that has a legacy of large-scale energy production in the form of peat harvesting and a peat fired power station (now demolished) that operated for around 40 years from the 1960s,” the report adds.

The local landscape has also been changed substantially in recent years by the construction of more than 25 wind turbines for the Yellow River wind farm.

The energy domes will be capable of releasing 23MW each to the grid for eight hours.

They will be connected to the grid by an underground 110kV cable to the nearby Derryiron sub-station.

Offaly County Council said a decision is due on the planning application by August 10.