100% Community Owned · Volunteer Led
Brighter Kerry started with five people giving up their spare time to prove that a community-owned solar farm could actually be built in Ireland. That dream is now becoming a reality. We aim to begin supplying electricity to the national grid in 2028. Our goal is to have thousands of shareholder owners, and have every euro of surplus profit doing good exactly where it’s created.
Why It Matters
Energy made close to home, controlled by the people who live there.
Rather than power coming from a distant plant, a community energy project generates it locally, from sun, wind, or water, so the area it serves keeps the say, the savings, and the benefit. That’s the model Brighter Kerry is built on, just applied at solar-farm scale instead of a single rooftop.
How It Started
A shared vision.
Five volunteers with the skills to make it real.
Five local volunteer technical experts saw the opportunity in Kilcummin and built it from the ground up: pro bono legal support, a €10,000 loan from a local entrepreneur, and permission secured step by step, all to create Ireland’s first fully community-owned solar farm.
Who's Running It
The people behind Brighter.
Project timeline
How we got here
This site sat forgotten for years. It was too small for any big corporate developer to care about – just not enough profit! Now it will become Irelands first community-owned solar farm: built up permission by permission, funded without a single euro from a corporate head office, and carried forward by local volunteers who thought a site this size was still worth building.
1
Done
Site first planned, then abandoned
Originally laid out as a larger, 9MW project, with planning permission secured through to June 2028. The site was later bundled and sold to a larger utility, who stepped away from it to develop 100 to 200MW developments instead.
2
Done
Land agreements struck with local landowners
Terms agreed with two local landowners, with the lease pro bono structured by Goodbody. A €1 a year option fee converts to a market rate lease once the farm is built.
3
Done
Grid connection secured
A binding connection agreement with ESB Networks to the nearby Coolcorcoran substation, active through December 2026, alongside a planning declaration allowing cabling to run underground along the public road straight to it.
4
Done
Institutional backing confirmed
A term sheet secured from a leading EIIS fund, committing €5.5M to €9M in phased funding across 2026 to 2028.
5
Underway
Private placement opens to individual investors
From €5,000, shares are available now through accountancy firm AAB / O’Connor Pyne, alongside the first institutional tranche.
6
Upcoming
Remaining institutional funding closes
The balance of the EIIS fund’s commitment lands across 2027 and 2028, alongside construction.
7
Upcoming
Micro-crowdfunding opens
Planned for 2027, lowering the minimum investment to €500 so smaller community members can become shareholders directly with a lower minimum investment.
8
Upcoming
25 years of community profit begins
Once investor returns are met, every euro of surplus profit flows into a permanent community fund, voted on by Kerry shareholders, for the life of the farm.
Splash