Rathoe village is a small community of about 296 people in rural County Carlow, not far from Tullow town. We are currently surrounded by approximately 330 acres of solar farms and an estimated further 1000 acres of solar farmland and a battery storage plant is also planned.

Now a company named NZE (Net Zero Energy) are applying for planning permission to build a 2Billion euro Hydrogen power station (first of its kind in the world, so basically an experiment) on a fifty-acre site which is less than 500 meters from the local housing estate which is attached to a primary school and just across the road from a creche.

This facility could also take up to a decade to build. This development is based on greed by environmental profiteers.

The requirements for this facility also include the construction of six 200-meter-high chimneys and the drilling of numerous tunnels also up to 200 meters deep into solid granite to construct underground storage tanks. Which are basically ticking time bombs…

We have little or no consultation with NZE and we are truly unaware what the future holds and are genuinely frightened. Yet NZE openly say they have engaged with the local community, but this only included a brochure dropped in our post-boxes and a few emails and a lot of posturing.

We have set up this Go Fund me page to gather funds to fight this unproven technological disaster. Funds will be used to provide posters and information brochures to locals and to possibly provide legal advice in our efforts to prevent this facility being constructed on a totally unsuitable site.

We do not want to be guinea pigs in this experiment; our community deserves better.

This campaign is about giving a small rural community a fair opportunity to understand, question and respond to a proposal of unprecedented scale.

We believe that all communities deserve meaningful consultation, transparency and a genuine voice when developments of this size and unproven technology are proposed on their doorstep.

Thank you