Climate change is a collective problem and cooperative solutions to the energy transition are being implemented in communities throughout Ireland - collective in their clear vision of what the future should hold, bound together by values as opposed to geography, investing in their own physical landscape and built environment generating the returns and change they want to see. Mulranny became Mayo’s initial decarbonisation zone in 2021, aiming to “…reduce energy consumption, and change behaviour that will have a positive impact on climate change.” Community initiators – such as Carol Loftus and Sean Carolan are involved in a multitude of organisations in Mulranny. Carol aided the initiation and establishment of Mulranny Sustainable Energy Community in conjunction with the SEAI, a government body established to promote sustainable energy throughout Ireland. It is Mulranny SEC that aims to establish an energy co-operative system within the community and eventually a solar farm – which is the main point of deliberation and communication within this piece of research.

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The design project focused on delivering a 5MW solar system across 50 acres of agricultural land which had, at this point, already designated as the site for this proposed infrastructure. The primary objective was to investigate how an efficient yet, community-led solar farm could be designed to respect the existing landscape, biodiversity and agriculture whilst meeting the energy needs of the community, in addition to unifying this disparate agricultural landscape into one of co-operation and collaboration. This design project then formed the basis on which later research was based, evolving into the design and research into the custodianship if this solar landscape.

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