The High Court has quashed a decision by An Bord Pleanála refusing planning permission for a wind farm on the Kildare/Meath border.
The court ordered the application for the 47-turbine wind farm should be sent back to the planning authority for reconsideration.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Robert Haughton held that the board had acted outside of its powers and had taken irrelevant considerations into account when it decided to refuse permission on the basis of a lack of a national wind energy strategy.
In 2015 Element Power Ireland Ltd applied for planning permission to construct the turbines in northwest Kildare and in Co Meath, along with an electricity substation, underground cables, and 31km of access tracks.
The proposed turbines were to be developed in five clusters and would be 169m high.
In October 2016 the board refused to grant permission for the development.
The decision board said it was turning down the proposal on grounds, including that in the absence of any national wind energy strategy with a spatial dimension for the areas concerned, would be premature.
The board said it would represent an undesirable precedent that could undermine any future strategy for the area.
Other reasons cited by the board included that the project, which consists of widely-dispersed cluster-based wind farms, would have an adverse effect on the local residences and heritage, and would have long-term significant adverse effects on the structural integrity of the local road network.
Element Power challenged the board's refusal on grounds including that the planning authority had acted outside of its powers, and that its decision in relation to the lack of a national wind energy strategy was too vague and unclear to be adequate.
Judge Haughton said that a wind energy policy was contained in two relevant county developments plans.
However in its decision to refuse it appeared to the court that the board failed to address by reference to those plans if it should grant permission.
The Judge also found that the board had fettered its discretion when it determined that the proposed development was premature pending the implementation of a national wind energy strategy.
In all the circumstances the Judge said he was satisfied to quash the decision in its entirety and sent the matter back for reconsideration.
