Hidden Truth behind 900 acre Solar Farm in North Galway
New Series on The West's Awake: Global elites in your neighbourhood
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Today, I’m starting a new series of writing that will hopefully appear on a fortnightly basis. The purpose of the series - “Global elites in your neighbourhood ” is set to examine and expose the hidden global vines ghosting through our local towns and villages like a type of poison ivy.
Shiny and green on the outside but often corroding the walls underneath too. Over time these insidious ropes bind many aspects of our day-to-day lives into a global control network and destroy the very fabric of our Irish localities and existance.
Now, to assist me in this new endeavour, I’m going to be employing and repurposing Irish local newspapers by focusing on local stories printed in those papers and actually taking a much deeper look at the truth that lies beneath the news headlines. People might then have a tool at their disposal to approach local politicians or local media and inform themselves, neighbours and others about what is going on locally and tackle it. Investigate for themselves. Rather than screaming into the digital abyss on the latest global outrage, which is a distraction play governments and elites are more than happy for people to become addicted to and expend energy on.
Often, people flip through these local pieces of journalism and on first fly-by ‘ the news ‘ is presented as good news or positive for a local area or local population. But, on closer examination, the item in question is generally long-term bad for the area. More seriously, it raises serious implications as to who actually owns our localities and ultimately runs them.
I’m starting close to home with a recent article published in the Tuam Herald with a publication date of July 2, 2025. Moving forward, my hope is to focus on an article from a different local newspaper in each edition of the series. Readers are invited to join in by forwarding me interesting local news pieces from their area to my email address at the foot of this piece.
Massive 900 acre solar farm planned for North Galway
The subject matter for today’s piece is an article written by Mark Walsh of the Tuam Herald and news that “ The Belville Solar Farm Project “ is planning to build an 894 acre solar farm on lands in the north Galway parishes of Monivea and Abbeyknockmoy. On paragraph three the reader is introduced to the company that is planning to build the farm.
Power Capital Renewable Energy.
It is at this point where problems with this piece of journalism begin and where the journalist stops asking relevant questions or has decided to ignore them. The planning application for the Belville Solar Farm has yet to be submitted and so a community information event was held where a representative from PCRE apparently addressed the local community. I assume the representative identified themselves to the local community but the Tuam Herald have decided not to print the name of the PCRE representative anywhere in the half-page spread, yet quote the person extensively.
“ Power Capital are committed to working with the local community as we take forward initial design work on the the proposed Bellville Solar Project, we will use the upcoming consultation period to listen carefully to the views of the local residents before finalising our plans “ said the PCRE spokesperson ( Tuam Herald, July 2, 2025 edition )
Who are PCRE?
Well now, this is where things get most interesting indeed. The question of ownership is not one addressed by the Tuam Herald or the article’s author. But, a link to a website created for the Bellville Solar Project called bellvillesolar.ie is provided at the end of the Tuam Herald piece. One answer to the “ who “ question is provided by PCRE there.
An answer that is a complete and utter lie.
Power Capital Renewable Energy (PCRE) was founded in 2011, with a long-term goal of producing clean, sustainable energy.
We are a specialist, independent Irish company with a growing international presence. We build photovoltaic (PV) solar farms that produce electricity and continue to grow our portfolio through projects which we believe will help meet climate action targets and benefit local communities. - verbatim quote from bellvillesolar.ie
Now, the real answer to the question is as follows:
Power Capital Renewable Energy is majority owned by Omnes Capital, a Paris-based private equity and infrastructure investment firm.
A French owned hedge fund, in other words.
The acquisition of PCRE was part of Omnes Capital's first investment into the Irish renewables market in 2020, allegedly backing Power Capital's transformation from a pure renewables developer into Ireland's leading independent power producer.
While Omnes Capital owns the controlling stake, Justin Brown and Peter Duff, the co-founders of Power Capital Renewable Energy, continue to serve as Co-CEOs and remain actively involved in the company's operations. The company was originally founded by Brown and Duff in 2011. A point to note here, for future reference in this series, is the huge transformational shift in infrastructural Irish company ownership that occurred during the two year lockdown period in Ireland and in the two years prior to it. A massive move away from predominantly Irish owned infrastructure industries - whether they be solar, wind farms or mobile phone masts - towards hedge-fund owned buy-outs or investment in these same companies and sectors.
Omnes Capital have over 6 billion euro of assets under management and since the acquisition and direct investment into PCRE they’ve extensively expanded their own plans and footprint in Ireland and abroad too. A recent article on a Tipperary solar project appearing in the Irish Examiner on April 21st, 2025 penned by journalist Gordon Deegan, emphasises the extensive ambitions of Omnes Capital in Ireland.
However, the Tipperary project is being met with significant resistance locally led by Independent TD Mattie McGrath. PCRE’s proposed North Galway development is almost three times the size of the Tipperary project with little to zero interest by local politicians in questioning the wisdom of transferring 900 acres of Irish land to French hedge-fund control. Which in effect is exactly what occurs when the landowners enter into long-term deals with renewable energy suppliers.
The North Galway silence is somewhat baffling as the constituency possesses an Independent TD, Sean Canny, who since January 2025 serves as Minister of State at the Department of Transport with responsibility for International and Road Transport, Logistics, Rail, and Ports. So, a politician with significantly more muscle at his disposal than Mattie McGrath to make things happen or not happen.
“ Independent TD Mattie McGrath is one of over 300 people to lodge submissions with Tipperary County Council on the solar farm proposed for a 318-acre site, and now seven third parties have lodged appeals with An Bord Pleanála against the council’s decision to give the project the green light “ Gordon Deegan, Irish Examiner, April 21st, 2025.
The real question, though, in the overall context of the Irish Solar industry is again a rather simple one.
Who are Omnes Capital?
Omnes Capital is a leading European private equity firm headquartered in Paris, with additional offices in Brussels, Munich, and Zurich. According to the official firm blurb they are dedicated to energy transition, focusing its investments on sectors that drive sustainability and innovation. As of early 2024, Omnes manages over €6.7 billion in assets.
However, this description is a bit like the Tuam Herald story we began this piece of writing with - only the surface level truth.
Omnes Capital are also part of the war business. I’m not exactly sure how this stacks up with their visions of protecting the planet or energy transition. But as of four days ago the the private equity firm are also transitioning to war.
On July 2, 2025, Omnes Capital announced the first close of its second deeptech fund, Omnes Real Tech 2, raising €112 million with a target of €200 million by 2026. With a massive expansion of investment into a number of new areas including European defence and Artificial Intelligence. This fund is also notable for being the first in Europe to benefit from the European Union’s defence mandate, specifically through the InvestEU programme. So, Omnes are now entering the defence business or the weapons business to put it more bluntly.
So, what are key aspects of Omnes Capital's defence investment ?
Spotlight sectors: The Omnes Real Tech fund targets foundational sectors including defence and security, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, new space, electronic components, and advanced materials.
Portfolio Companies targeted by this fund: Omnes is an investor in several high-profile European defence and Spacetech Startups:
Quantum Systems (Germany): A profitable unicorn specializing in drones for defence applications.
ARX Robotics (Germany): Specializes in unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for defence; Omnes’ new fund’s first investment was in this company.
The Exploration Company (Franco-German): Focused on spacecraft and new space technologies.
Investment Stage: Omnes invests in early growth stage start-ups—companies with revenue or order backlog and a path to profitability within 24 months. They also reserve significant capital for follow-on investments to support scaling.
Geographic Focus: While pan-European, Omnes places particular emphasis on Germany and Italy, leveraging a 20-year network of deeptech entrepreneurs and experts.
Institutional Backing: The fund is supported by major European institutional investors, including Bpifrance, France 2030, the European Investment Fund (via the EU defence mandate), BNP Paribas, and Crédit Agricole Assurances.
For more info click here
Now, it is at this point we should pause to consider some broader, long-term questions, ones not often raised by local media, national media or international media. These reflections have very little to do with the “climate crisis “, or indeed, whether you believe solar panels are net good or bad for the environment. Or what the best solutions are to promote a more wholesome environment and natural world. The broader consideration I’m getting at here is something different.
Solar energy, Wind farms, mobile phone masts, even the latest craze on European Defence have one thing in common:
They are all an industry.
All solutions must start not first with finding the correct solution but by ensuring a global industry - controlled by the few - can be created to implement the solution. The globalist in your neighbourhood never promotes local solutions to local problems. First and foremost, they promote the creation of global industries to solve local, national and global problems. Whether the problem is real or manufactured, a select few must become mega wealthy as a result of the solution. We know this by virtue of the growing numbers of companies investing in these sectors of focus.
Hedge-funds.
Whether those funds be Blackrock or Omnes Capital they are dedicated to profit above all else. They are also the select few with access to the central funding taps of places like the European Investment Bank and others. An institution theoretically owned by the EU member states but fuelling who exactly?
Now, the solar energy industry in Ireland is particularly insidious because the industry require tens of thousands of acres, if not hundreds of thousands, of good agricultural Irish land - productive land - to implement their solutions. In short, tens of thousands of acres of Irish land comes under the control of a small, select group of hedge-funds. Today’s example is a French global equity house. Tomorrow’s example might well be a US or UK finance house.
To move this piece on lets imagine a scenario where 80% of Irish electricity is produced from solar farms and supplied into the national electricity grid of Ireland.
How would these global hedge funds controlling the electricity supply market react, do you think, if an Irish government decided to cut the price it was willing to pay for electricity ?
What might happen to electricity supply, would you say, if Ireland, as a neutral country, announced it was totally opposed to any increase in Irish or even EU spending on European defence funding or an EU Army?
As a nation we are transferring our energy dependence from the fluctuating price of a barrel of oil into a dependence on the bones fides of a global elite of private equity firms who supply our energy and electricity by usurping our land and our seas to provide it.
Bonkers.
If local newspapers are going to cheer-lead French hedge-funds herding sheep underneath thousands of solar panels across North Galway’s turf bogs and fertile fields and tell us this is good for the sheep then they at least need to begin presenting the whole facts of who and what is behind all of these projects.
Community information evenings probably don’t highlight any of the information above as part of the PowerPoint presentations provided by the local representatives of Global Inc. Instead, they talk in the hollow vocabulary of the financier and of the:
“ significant investment in the local economy “
At community nights, they promise ha’pennies on the euro towards a community fund and other strings of insignificant rubbish. Meanwhile, back on the walnut lined walls and boardrooms of the controlling ranches - the resources of the county are quietly transferred from Monivea and Abbeyknockmoy to Zurich and Paris.
“ PCRE intend to set up a fund for the Bellville Solar Farm project. A minimum of 2 euro per megawatt hour of electricity produced will be paid to the community benefit fund “ Tuam Herald, July 2, 2025
The above statement pulled from the Bellville website by the Tuam Herald rather than from the PCRE representative’s mouth who presented at the community infomercial. This little detail, small as it is, would indicate the Tuam Herald are on board with the project. Wallpapering over the cracks. I’ve already highlighted the same website can’t be relied on to tell you who really owns the company. So, I wouldn’t be running to the bank with any promises made on the community fund front.
Conclusion
And so, everybody smiles and flaps excitedly like turkeys watching the kitchen table being set for a hearty Christmas dinner. All parties imagining themselves sitting down together to enjoy a 900 acre North Galway feast. Many though, ignorant of an Orwellian fact from Animal Farm.
Some smiles are more equal than others.
Not everyone is joining the feast and a few sneaky smiles are reserved for and directed at the soon-to-be headless turkeys marching happily into their own oven, in their own kitchen, in their own house, on their own land.
You know, when you reach a certain vintage of Irish rural life and living you begin to understand something. A slow moving knowing seeps into your aging bones. Until finally, one day, this knowing becomes a shocking realisation. The profound comprehension that the Bull McCabe didn’t kill the American half quickly enough in the movie.
The Irish sadness is it takes us half our lives to figure this out.
- email local news stories to lynbrook1973@gmail.com
Readers can make once off contributions to my work - by clicking the link —> Buy the author a coffee. ☕️
Donations also via Revolut to 085 1214347
Regular readers please now consider upgrading to paid subscription below. New readers can sign up for free to receive my articles by email.
Fantastic article Gerry. This is what the fourth estate is supposed to look like.
"For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity." ~ Frantz Fanon
We need to remember that the land of Ireland was wrestled from the conquerors, we can’t just hand it to a new set. No land, no people. (And I wrote about something similar in an essay of my own)