Our Community
Engagement approach
At FuturEnergy Ireland, we believe in speaking to the local community right from the start and continuing this engagement throughout the entire lifetime of the wind farm.
On the ground, we have two dedicated project Community Liaison Officers, Christy O'Dea and Kevin Donnellan. Their job is to provide information and answer your queries.
Christy and Kevin will be calling to houses in the local area, distributing newsletters and making sure you get the information that you need.
Our commitment to you
- Two dedicated Community Liaison Officers Christy O'Dea (left) and Kevin Donnellan (right, pictured with fellow Clare CLO Michael McNamara), who you can contact directly by phone or email
- Regular newsletter updates
- All updates added to this website
- The opportunity to meet a team specialist or consultant relevant to your query
- An information webinar with a Q&A session
- A full project brochure
- A Virtual Exhibition linked to this website
- A Community Engagement Clinic
Supporting a local renewable energy project comes with many benefits for the community
Community Benefit Fund
Knockshanvo Wind Farm has the potential to bring significant positive benefits to local communities including a Community Benefit Fund in line with industry best practice, which is the Government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS).
Those living in closest proximity should be priority beneficiaries and that is why some of the fund is designated for Near Neighbour payments. However, it is important that broader community benefits apply as well.
Community Benefit Fund
The scheme mandates all RESS projects to establish a Community Benefit Fund worth €2/MWh (megawatt hour) of generated electricity for the RESS contract period. FuturEnergy Ireland also offers a further €1/MWh for the remaining lifetime of the project. The total fund depends on the final power output.
If the project does not qualify for RESS, FuturEnergy Ireland pledges to match these contributions.
The new Rulebook for Community Benefit Funds under RESS, published in May 2025 by the Department of the Environment, Climate & Communications, sets out how the funds should be used and managed.
What does your community need?
When it comes to the Community Benefit Fund, communities will be at the centre of the decision-making process.
One particular focus of the fund is to support local initiatives that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals such as home and community hall retrofits, pollinator farms, cycling paths, educational material and scholarships, and sports club activities.
Local rates contributions
Knockshanvo Wind Farm has the potential to contribute an estimated €550,000 in annual rates payments to Clare County Council, an important contributor in exchequer funding.
This would have a positive impact on the development of local infrastructure such as roads, public transport, lighting, street cleaning, libraries, fire services, public amenities and employment.
Education
We have embedded a holistic approach to education across our community engagement programmes to encourage people to learn more about climate change, the environment and renewable energy. Schools near the Knockshanvo project area can avail of the following:
- Bosca Dúlra: These nature boxes provided by Biodiversity in Schools are a fun nature toolkit that helps national school children explore biodiversity.
- Climate in a Box: A series of five interactive lessons on climate and sustainability created by Steam Education for national school children.
- 'Renewable Energy & Your Future': TY workshops led by our CLOs, with an emphasis on ‘climate jobs’. This may also be accompanied by a trip to a wind farm.
- Generation Change: Youth advocacy programme designed to help young people learn more about renewable energy in a non-formal education setting.
- Community workshops: Renewable energy workshops tailored to your community group.
“Thanks again for a lovely STEAM Education resource. I found the content and layout excellent so well done to all involved in the planning and development of these wonderful sessions."
"Our school was thrilled to be involved in this initiative and would recommend it to other schools as a way of teaching an important topic in a highly engaging way."
"This is an excellent programme for both children and teachers. It is very user-friendly with well-developed resources and a wide range of activities for the children to engage with."
"Many thanks for delivering an excellent presentation to the girls and for organising our visit to the wind farm. The girls truly loved it."
"The children loved the hands-on nature of the tasks and found the lessons both engaging and fascinating."
Have your say
It’s important for us to be good neighbours and we take this responsibility very seriously. We welcome feedback from the community throughout the lifetime of this project.
There are a number of ways you can do this:
- Speak to a Community Liaison Officer, either in person, by phone or via email
- Request a meeting with the Community Liaison Officer
- Fill in the contact form on this project website
- Join the project webinar
- Visit the Virtual Exhibition
- Attend the in-person Community Engagement Clinic
