#SeaPower - Fears over loss of access to generations-old seaweed harvesting grounds and millennia-old archaeological finds have been expressed by locals in the consultation on the new Galway Bay Marine and Renewable Energy Test Site, which closes next Friday 9 September.
According to The Irish Times, community activists in Spiddal have accused the State agency responsible of a "lack of transparency" over its intentions for a long-term lease over the foreshore site on the Connemara coast that's already home to the new SmartBay observatory.
Locals have also expressed concerns that the new facility would be used for power generation and not just for testing of quarter-scale prototypes, that it would cover an area some "30 times the size of Croke Park", and that the main test wind turbine would reach a height of 35 metres.
"We run a regatta in Spiddal every year of Galway hookers and it is right on the line of the regatta," said an organiser of the public meeting held in Spiddal last Monday 22 August. "There was no environment impact statement; there was no consultation with the likes of us."