Renewable Electricity Support Scheme – Design Consultation is Seeking Submissions

The Public consultation on the development and design of a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) for Ireland has been launched. This consultation is seeking submissions to specific questions relating to the design principles and structure of the new RESS, including models and pathways to deliver increased community and citizen participation in renewable electricity projects. Feedback is sought on the emerging design options of the new scheme. Link to consultation details here. It is expected that this consultation will remain open for a period of 9 weeks until 3rd November.

Public Consultation on Development of a National Policy for the Bioeconomy

Submissions are invited on developing Ireland’s Bioeconomy, relevant submissions to the Bioeconomy Discussion Document will input into the drafting of a National Policy Statement on the bioeconomy. This will cut across a number of sectors and Departments, and the objective of the policy statement is to ensure greater policy coherence and assign responsibility to Departments for specific elements of the bioeconomy. The Bioeconomy Discussion document can be viewed here.  Written submissions should be sent to the Department of the Taoiseach before 15th September 2017 Email: bioeconomy@taoiseach.gov.ie
Background:

  1. The EU & the Bioeconomy
  2. Ireland & the bioeconomy
    • BioEire – Next Steps for the Irish bioeconomy: supply, demand, business and research consideration

Consultation on Medium Combustion Plant Directive

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) is seeking views on transposition of the Medium Combustion Plant (MCP) Directive. Medium combustion plants are used for a variety of purposes including electricity generation, providing heat for industrial processes, and commercial heating and cooling systems. They are plants which range in thermal input size from 1 megawatt (MWth) to 50 MWth.
Under the Directive, most medium sized combustion plants will only be allowed to operate when registered or permitted, and when complying with emission limit values for SO2, NOx and dust. More information can be found here  Contact: mcp@dccae.gov.ie, submissions in by close of business on Friday 29 September 2017.

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Irish Times Article on Companies Switching to Biogas and What Ireland Needs to Grow this Sector

Kevin O’Sullivan of the Irish Times talks in this article about some of Ireland’s leading food and drink companies who are supporting a big move into production of biogas, an emissions-free energy source from agricultural waste and energy crops. Diageo, one of the State’s biggest gas consumers – mainly through St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin – and Dairygold Co-Op are leading the way in this move. Much of Diageo’s gas needs next year are likely to be supplied by an IrBEA member Green Generation in Co Kildare, an anaerobic digester (AD) plant set up by pig farmer Billy Costello. The €5 million biogas facility is beside one of his pig farms. It is designated a demonstration facility by Gas Networks Ireland, the State-owned Ervia subsidiary supporting development of renewable energy.In 2012 Dairygold installed an AD at its Mitchelstown complex. The technology used was a first for the dairy industry and it is the largest above ground digester of its type in the world. The digester generates biogas from dairy processing waste water. The biogas is burned in boilers and supplies up to 6 per cent of the heat demand for the production site. This displaces natural gas use and saves over 3,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. Dairygold are currently exploring ways to further reduce its processing carbon footprint through renewable fuels. This article can be read in full here
For those members interested, David Fitzgerald Sustainability Manager at Dairygold will be speaking at IrBEA Conference Bioenergy Future Ireland 2018

Bioenergy Installations Map Ireland 2017

The Irish Bioenergy Association has updated the Bioenergy Installations Map Ireland 2017 this year. The new edition was published to coincide with Bioenergy 2017 – IRBEA National Bioenergy Conference which was held at Castleknock Hotel and Country Club, Co. Dublin in February. This map is published every second year, it shows type of installation by symbol followed by generating capacity and operator.  We try and show all installations that are built, under construction, or planned/grid connection offer. View map here

RE-DIRECT Project – Report on Progress So Far

IrBEA is a partner of the European project RE-DIRECT (Regional Development and Integration of unused biomass wastes as Resources for Circular products and economic Transformation) In January 2017 the kick-off meeting for this project took place in Bonn. The newsletter link below is an important document, it will update you on the meetings and visits to date and it also goes into some details about the goals of the project. RE-DIRECT will make use of the proven technology named “Integrated Generation of Solid Fuel and Biogas from Biomass (IFBB)”, explained in the diagram below, to convert 20,000t of unused biomass in a circular economy approach into region-specific carbon products. We have quite a few members interested in this this area and we advise you take a look at this newsletter. Newsletter REDIRECT 1

IrBEA elects new President

We would like to warmly welcome Des O’Toole (Coillte – Business Development Manager) as the new President of IrBEA, Des has worked with IrBEA for many years on the committee, he has provided invaluable support and has helped grow the organisation. We look forward to him leading IrBEA into the next period where we hope to see bioenergy sector develop. We would also like to congratulate Paddy Phelan (Manager of Carlow and Kilkenny Energy Agency) for taking up the role of Vice President,  we are extremely lucky to have these two experienced experts working on the IrBEA board.

IrBEA RHI Consultation March 2017 – Submission

Please find the link here to the response to the Public Consultation on the design and implementation of a renewable heat incentive in Ireland on behalf of the Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA). These detailed responses are based on the responses co-ordinated by the IrBEA RHI Working Group on behalf of it’s members and those who responded accordingly to each of the questions raised concerning the design options for the RHI.

As an association supporting the development and deployment of sustainable bioenergy, we look forward to seeing the outcomes of the this consultation process and are hopeful that we will see a well-designed RHI scheme in place for 2017 that will drive growth and stimulate the bioenergy industry in Ireland towards 2020 and beyond.

Final Consultation On A Renewable Heat Incentive For Ireland

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten T.D. has launched the final consultation on a Renewable Heat Incentive for Ireland to incentivise industrial and commercial heat users. If you would like to review the documentation – ‘Public Consultation On the Design and Implementation of a Renewable Heat Incentive in Ireland’ can be viewed here

Demetra have a successful day demonstrating their ADBag in Tipperary 

This event took place on the 16 November at the Horse and Jockey in Tipperary with a presentation from Franceso Panzeri (Demetra) who ran through the history of engineering and designing the ADBag. He discussed funding the research and building the pilot plant, interestingly both Enterprise Ireland and SEAI have been heavily involved in getting this company ready for business in Ireland. He also fielded many technical questions from visiting engineers and potential clients. We proceeded to the plant where the pilot ADBag was in situ at Tipperary Cheese. The pilot site was a scaled down version of a type you would buy, the ADbag was around 6m wide but it was working effectively as Francesco demonstrated.  It is designed to allow easy and cheap access to biogas production, ideally for small farms and food processors with a supply of waste. The Adbag solution is a modular system based on a prefabricated plastic bag, which is easy to be installed and maintained. A technical container unit regulates the recirculation, feeding and heating of the digester. The ADbag can be supplied with or without the CHP, whatever the client prefers but it is at an extra cost. The system is fully automatized and can be controlled remotely. It was a very informative day and we would like to thank Francesco for sharing  his knowledge and Donal Hayes (Tipperary Cheese) our host who graciously allowed 25 delegates to visit his farm to see the ADBag in action. Demetra ADBag Brochure