IrBEA plan to run a morning tour of biomass processing and heating facilities in Wexford on Wednesday 26 September. It will include visits to industrial and commercial biomass clients. Participants will be taken from Kilmokea Country House in Wexford and brought to 3 sites of interest followed by lunch and one 20-minute seminar with Q&A session. There will also be an opportunity to meet the IrBEA committee and other members.

IrBEA are partners in the RE-DIRECT project and in conjunction with this event IrBEA will have a representative available for discussion or one-to-one meetings about the concept of decentralised production of biochar and activated carbon from biomass residues at this event.

Tour Route

Several hundred farmers attended the annual farm energy open day, where according to journalist Thomas Hubert discussions swung between progress on Government support and continuing hurdles to renewable projects. Farmers and renewable energy professionals showed both eagerness for the imminent launch of support schemes and frustration at delays, the scheme itself has be promised for years and now many farmers are frustrated at the endless wait and planning bureaucracy  associated with connection to the national electricity grid. Along with an array of talks and presentations on renewable energy and schemes in the pipeline there was also several impressive demos including a Wind Demo, Solar PV Demo, Wood Mobilisation, and Anaerobic Digestion Demo. Padraic O’Neill, Noel Gavigan and Michael Doran all members of IrBEA management  presented at this event and we hope to make all the presentations available shortly.

WFQA Stand                                                                                     Box Media talk to Trish Lawlor on the IrBEA Stand          Denis Naughten talks with Owen Power  from Enerpower    Padraic O’Neill talks at the Biogas Demo

At the publication of its Annual Review 2018, the Climate Change Advisory Council chairman Prof John FitzGerald said the policies being pursued to try to reverse Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions were inadequate. Ireland cannot meet targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and is completely off the course if it wants to achieve other carbon reduction goals. He believes that in order to decarbonise the economy by 2050, Ireland needs to produce 1 million fewer tonnes of carbon per year, which would require a complete reversal of the current trend.
Prof FitzGerald said “the problem is there isn’t a policy framework” to try to reach the targets. There was a need to increase carbon taxes to drive alternative energy approaches but this required cross-party consensus in a Dáil where the Government did not have an overall majority is problematic. Responding to the report, the Minister for Climate Action Denis Naughten said he shared the council’s frustration and that latest progressions on green house gas emissions were “deeply disappointing”. He said the transport and agriculture sectors and Ireland’s growing economy had “contributed significantly” to the increases but that the Government was “doing everything it can to ensure that we, as an absolute minimum, meet our 2030 target”. The council has called for an increase in carbon tax from €20 per tonne to €30 per tonne and Naughten has said the Department of Finance was finalising a review of the State’s carbon tax policy.