Hydroelectric generator at K Club resort 'will wipe out' Liffey salmon, angling bodies claim
Complaints alleging unauthorised development have been lodged with Kildare County Council regarding the generator project, carried out at the five-star K Club resort near Straffan.
The installation of a hydroelectric generator at one of the country’s highest profile golf clubs was carried out without the necessary planning permission, according to complaints to the local authority.
The complaints alleging unauthorised development have been lodged with Kildare County Council regarding the generator project, carried out at the five-star K Club resort near Straffan.
One of the complaints was made by Inland Fisheries Ireland, the State agency with responsibility for managing and protecting Ireland’s inland angling resources and fish stocks.
A further complaint, lodged last month by a local angling group, makes reference to an “unauthorised hydropower scheme on Straffan weir”.
It alleges the development was “constructed by the K Club without prior planning permission”, adding as a result of the installation “the main flow of the River Liffey has been redirected over the weir through turbines for the purpose of electricity generation”.
“Turbines have no screens and this threatens to destroy all salmon smolts migrating downstream during the months of March, April and May,” that complaint states.
“This development completely compromises upstream migration of salmon, sea trout and all anadromous species,” it said.
A spokesperson for Inland Fisheries Ireland confirmed the body had lodged a similar unauthorised development complaint with the local authority last August, some months before the generator went live.
“IFI believes that the project constituted a significant development that required planning, and that important considerations should have been taken into account in relation to potential threats to fish, including their migration,” the body said.
Neither Kildare County Council nor Eco Hydro, the company which carried out the generator installation, responded to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the K Club said the resort did not have a response.
Eco Hyrdro was retained by the K Club last year to “restore and improve” the facility’s existing hydroelectric generator, which uses the flow of the adjacent River Liffey to provide power to the club.
The company’s principal, Robert Quirke, has been in dispute with the HSE over €10.3m worth of unused covid ventilators for just under five years.
His company, Roqu Media International — which had previously been involved in running music festivals in the Middle East and eastern Europe and which recently entered voluntary liquidation — received €14.1m from the HSE to procure 328 ventilators from China at the height of the pandemic.
However, just 72 ventilators were received, and the devices subsequently failed to pass the quality standards required for clinical deployment and were never used.
Last Christmas, the K Club officially launched its refurbished hydroelectric generator, an event at which Mr Quirke was pictured with then finance minister Jack Chambers.
At the time, the K Club said the new generator “is expected to cover about 70% of the hotel’s electrical needs”.
The club said the refurbishment project had “required a custom-built turbine” which had been carried out by an Austrian company, a process which had taken “about 12-18 months”. The club did not divulge how much the project had cost.
