Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment

I request access to environmental information held by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications under the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007–2018 concerning the preparation, methodology, data sourcing, validation, and publication of the National Territory Map for Grid-Scale Solar PV ("the National Map"), published on 3 September 2025 under Article 15b of Directive (EU) 2023/2413 (Renewable Energy Directive III, “RED III”). The information sought concerns measures affecting land use, landscape, biodiversity, soil, and spatial planning across the national territory. It falls within Article 3(1)(a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) of the AIE Regulations. Timeframe 1 January 2022 to the date of this request. ………………………………………………. On 02/04/2026 the request was refined to Information Sought Records documenting the Department's validation, quality assurance, and verification procedures applied to local authority LARES solar data before incorporation into the national Territory Map, including: 1. Any record or records identifying which local authorities submitted or provided LARES solar mapping data, the date of receipt, and the format in which data was provided (GIS shapefiles, raster datasets, tabular, development plan excerpts, or other). 2. Documentation of quality assurance or validation procedures applied to local authority LARES solar data, including any testing for methodological consistency, spatial coverage gaps, attribute completeness, or alignment with national suitability criteria. 3. National-level reconciliation or harmonisation records addressing how methodological discrepancies between local authority LARES datasets were identified and resolved before publication in the national Map. 4. Technical specifications or guidance documents issued by the Department to local authorities specifying the required methodology, data standards, or suitability tier definitions to be applied in LARES preparation. (Search period for this item: 1 January 2018 - 31 December 2021.) 5. Internal decision documents or briefing memoranda addressing whether local authority LARES data met the Department's quality assurance requirements before publication in the national Territory Map. Scope Clarification & Exclusions The following scope limitations apply:  Document type: Quality assurance reports, validation assessments, internal decision memoranda, data intake logs, and technical guidance only. Excluded: draft iterations and general email correspondence. Formal correspondence containing methodological determinations, validation results, or quality assurance findings is not excluded.  Scope: National-level validation and quality assurance procedures only. Not requested: individual project assessments, site-specific reviews, or records relating to specific projects approved under the national Map.  Timeframe: 1 January 2021 - 3 September 2025 (from final LARES adoption through national Map publication), save that item 4 above carries a search period of 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2021.  Format: Electronic access, original format. Contractor-Held Records Where any of the above records are held by contractors acting on behalf of the Department, including Compass Informatics, I request that the Department take all reasonable steps to retrieve those records in accordance with Article 3(1) of the AIE Regulations.