Sustainable Energy Updates from Budget 2017 including observations on RHI development

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As you know we have had the budget this week and statements from different government departments have been released, including Denis Naughten Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE). Everyone is attempting to make sense of what has been promised in terms of investment into Sustainable energy. Tom Bruton blogs on the background to the budget announcements of relevance to sustainable energy here, he is a principal consultant with BioXL, a specialist energy consultancy in Ireland. He has wide expertise in sustainable energy technology and policy, he was also President of IrBEA.

Study on Biomass Combustion Emissions – Draft Consultation 11- 25 October 2016

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The Irish BioEnergy Association with the assistance of SEAI is pleased to issue the document: Study on Biomass Conbustion Emissions – Draft Consultation, the report has been completed by Fehilly Timoney Consultants. Throughout the previous four years Irish businesses have been calling for the introduction of a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to support the development of biomass heating in Ireland. The introduction of such a measure would assist Ireland in meeting its 2020 Renewable Energy Targets, reduce Irelands dependence on imported fossil fuels and reduce Irelands greenhouse gas emissions. However the question has been raised – Will the combustion of biomass result in other emissions to atmosphere that may be harmful to the environment or human health? This brief report seeks to open this question and to inform the reader as to the main aspects of the question. The report seeks to inform the reader about biomass combustion and the techniques used to mitigate and control emissions.

The Irish BioEnergy Association invites stakeholders, policy makers and members of the public to examine this report and share their views on the topic.

Responses received may contribute directly to the report or may form the basis of future studies into the matter at hand. Open for public consultation from 11th October 2016 to 25th October 2016

All responses to be issued via email to emissions@irbea.org

Responses to be received by 5pm on the 25th October 2016

 

Ireland generates 25% of its energy from renewables – SEAI reports

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A quarter of all electricity used in Ireland was generated from renewable energy sources last year. That helped avoid three million tonnes of fossil-fuel related CO2 emissions, according to latest figures from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). It was the second largest source of electricity in 2015 behind gas and ahead of coal. More than 80% of green power came from wind turbines while the rest came from a range of technologies including hydropower, biomass, waste and landfill gas. Dr Eimear Cotter, SEAI Head of Low Carbon Technologies said: “Ireland is making significant progress in decarbonising our electricity system. “We know that renewables in electricity generation helps to lower CO2 emissions but we still have an electricity system that is heavily reliant on carbon emitting fossil fuels. With 2020 renewable electricity targets approaching, we need to intensify action to increase the contribution of all renewables in our electricity mix.” View SEAI media release

AEBIOM interviews Irish Partners

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Des O’Toole, Business Development Manager for Coillte and IrBEA committee member was interviewed by the European Biomass Association, read what he would like to see happening in Ireland in terms of bioenergy development. here

Renewable Heat Incentive

IrBEA Renewable Heat Incentive in Ireland Report

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The Irish BioEnergy Association’s analysis and proposal for a renewable heat incentive (RHI) was made available in September 2015, an electronic version can be viewed here. The report (and recommendations) has incorporated a strong element of industry consultation and represents a coherent and robust appraisal with industry support. A draft of this final report was distributed to all IrBEA members for consultation in June 2015. A workshop was held in May 2015 where the findings were outlined to 50 IrBEA member organisations and individuals. Separate workshops were held with the IrBEA management committee and the IrBEA Renewable Heat Group. A series of meetings were convened also to engage directly with IrBEA stakeholders.

The report is a response to the ongoing RHI consultation process established by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR) following publication of its draft Bioenergy Plan.

IrBEA ‘Financing Bioenergy Projects’ Workshop – Valuable knowledge sharing

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50 people attended the IRBEA ‘Financing Bioenergy Projects’ Workshop at Luttrellstown Golf Club in Castleknock. Attendees would of learnt some valuable lessons from the talks, speakers discussed their experiences financing projects, from large biomass power plants (Peter Dickson) to the medium size projects including AD and CHP technology (George Delaney). Garrett Monaghan’s contribution was important as he highlighted the issue of having a detailed proposal and well informed advisors. Paddy Phelan offered valuable insight into the funding implications for community based projects, including the importance of involving the community in planning larger scale projects. This event was the first of it’s kind for IrBEA focusing on finance and from the feedback we have received we will hope to be running a similar event in 2017.

Presentations can be viewed here:

Peter Dickson from Glennmont Partners

Peter Dickson – Glennmont Partners

George Delaney Bridge & York Partners

George Delaney – Bridge & York Partners

Hope all those who managed to take part in the Golf ProAM event in the afternoon enjoyed the competition and superb weather.

 

New IrBEA members – June 2016

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We would like to welcome several new IrBEA members this month they include Biolectric Ireland in Dublin, CHP Mechanical in Co Down, both companies have taken up medium corporate membership. We would also like to welcome Derry Cronin from Fergus, Cork and Dragon Heat Ltd from Castledermot, Kildare who have joined as indivdual members. We look forward to their involvement and meeting up soon at forthcoming IrBEA events.

Open Public Consultation on Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 Work Programme 2018-2020

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Horizon 2020 reflects the policy priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy and addresses major concerns shared by citizens in Europe and elsewhere.The public consultation on Horizon 2020 – Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine and Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy- Work Programme 2018-2020 is open from 06 June until 28 August. Details are found here http://ec.europa.eu/research/consultations/sc2-wp2018-2020/consultation_en.htm
The objective of Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 is “to secure sufficient supplies of safe, healthy and high quality food and other bio-based products, by developing productive, sustainable and resource-efficient primary production systems, fostering related ecosystem services and the recovery of biological diversity, alongside competitive and low-carbon supply, processing and marketing chains. This will accelerate the transition to a sustainable European bioeconomy, bridging the gap between new technologies and their implementation”.
All citizens and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation. Contributions are particularly sought from civil society organisations, businesses, research institutions, policy makers, higher education institutions,science museums, science shops, scientific centres of excellence, local public authorities, cities of scientific culture, innovators and entrepreneurs.

New IrBEA website launched

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IrBEA are pleased to announce the release of their new website at www.irbea.org, hope you like it. We intend to have the latest information and news from bioenergy industry. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please send them to contact@irbea.ie.
Fuelled by interest from members we have included new functionality to our website called ‘Members Forum’, this gives one members the opportunity to upload information about their company and share recent business news and developments. We will offer a page of our website each month to any members who thinks this could be beneficial to their business. It may be a detailed report or case study relating to their business or it may be used to simply let other members know that they are a new member of IrBEA, the format it takes is very much under their control. We will charge a nominal fee of €250 for a 3 month slot, our staff will be on hand to help with any content technicalities. For more information ring Teresa at 086 1256709 or email membership@irbea.ie

Update from DCENR

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IrBEA has received feedback from DCENR over the last 2 weeks, the department seemed genuinely interested in working  to ensure that the Bioenergy policy delivery is appropriate. It is still their intention to roll out RHI by early 2017. The timeline seems to be that there will be another consultation in late June. It will have three components: A questionnaire to related parties. Interviews with specific organisations (including IrBEA) and finally, select workshops. There will then be a final consultation early October, which will be focused both on the procedure for delivering the RHI and the technical content. Element Energy, from London has been appointed to carry out the economic review for RHI. That report is due back in September, in advance of the consultation. There will also be results out shortly on a biogas study which will feed into the consultation.