Kilkenny solar park among rural projects to benefit from funding boost
The Callan Community Solar Park has been awarded €200,000 in funding.
The money was allocated Ballytobin Solar Ltd under the LEADER Programme. It is part of a €268,371 package for rural development projects in Kilkenny earmarked by the Department of Rural and Community Development.
Funding for the Callan project will be used to build the new solar park, purchase equipment, marketing, training and pay for costs relating to connecting the park with the national grid.
Kilkenny Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan this week confirmed a number of Kilkenny LEADER Partnership projects aimed at developing rural towns and providing basic services for hard-to-reach communities were approved for funding under the latest allocation. These include:
*SEROI (Social & Economic Return on Investment)+Central Trainer initiative– funding of €16,628 to engage a trainer to provide overall coordination support for this co-operation project in all partner Local Action Group (LAG) areas and to provide recommendations on a training framework which can be piloted in LAG regions across Europe;
*SEROI+ Ireland Training Coordinator – funding of €14,968.57 towards engaging a trainer to coordinate project actions in each LAG territory and engage with communities/stakeholders in each local area;
*SEROI+ Tool Calculator Cooperation Analysis & Development – €5,625 towards the SEROI planning and evaluation tool on the overall value and return on investments to a community;
*An additional €7,078.50 was approved under the Rural Towns initiative, towards developing a SMART Village Training Curriculum Cooperation Project targeted at rural communities;
*Funding of €24,071 was approved to deliver a Smart Villages Training Programme to communities in rural areas in Kilkenny.
Deputy Phelan (pictured below) said: “This funding will support locally-led projects which focus on empowering local communities, embracing new opportunities in the green economy, supporting remote working and the digital transformation of rural areas across Kilkenny.”
