Webinar 24: Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) Seminar for Heat Users

TOPIC OVERVIEW

This online webinar was aimed at heat users who can potentially avail of the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) by transitioning from fossil fuel based heating systems to renewable heat. The SSRH is a government funded initiative designed to increase the energy generated from renewable sources in the heat sector. The scheme is open to commercial, industrial, agricultural, district heating, public sector and other non-domestic heat users.
Energy requirements in many sectors such as hospitality, sport centres, care homes and residential apartments is often very high. Reliable and cost-efficient, woodchip and wood pellet boilers are the ideal solution to reducing your heating costs. Many businesses will be eligible for the Scheme, it will effectively allow high energy demanding businesses to dramatically reduce their heating bills for 15 years. Depending on the heat usage and the size of the installation, up to €25,000/€30,000 per year is available for eligible applications, by switching from fossil, oil and gas to more sustainable biomass or biofuel sources.
This event included contributions the welcome address from William Walsh (SEAI, CEO) and presentations from Ray Langton (SEAI Program Manager SSRH), Noel Gavigan (IrBEA) Joanne Sheehan (Enterprise Ireland) Micheal Fogarty (Katestone Global) and SSRH grant recipients who have already been successful.

LIVE RECORDING – You can view the Presentation here

 

WEBINAR 23: Bioenergy’s contribution to a 40% renewable heat target by 2030

TOPIC OVERVIEW

Last month Renewable Energy Ireland (REI) launched 40by30 – a renewable heat vision which delivers 40% renewable heat by 2030, developed by XD Consulting it is the country’s first Renewable Heat Plan which sets out an agreed vision from industry for the renewable heat sector. It calls on the  Government to set an ambitious 40% renewable heat target by 2030 in the revised Climate Action Plan. The target can be provided by renewable sources primarily from bioenergy, heat pumps, renewable gas and district heating networks. We can heat our homes, schools, hospitals and businesses using a combination of several different heating technology options. The purpose of this IrBEA webinar was focused on the contribution of bioenergy, including solid biomass and biogas, to the ambitious 40% renewable heat target and outline the main findings and recommendations within the report.  The webinar will include contributions from Paddy Phelan IrBEA President, Dr. Tanya Harrington Chairperson of REI and the report’s author, Xavier Dubuisson of XD Consulting.

LIVE RECORDING

View the live recording here

 

Webinar 22: One Stop Shop – A platform to assist community Energy Projects

TOPIC OVERVIEW

This webinar focused on the opportunities to support community energy projects through an online collaborative platform called the One Stop Shop. It will outline the particular scope for enabling bioenergy projects, assisting the sector’s growth by developing public recognition, buy-in from stakeholders, and supportive policy measures from the government. The digital ‘One Stop Shop’ (OSS) aims to provide all necessary resources and tools to enable citizens to partake in renewable energy projects, helping them overcome technical and organisational barriers that may be holding them back at present. The OSS provides a space for connection and collaboration to share knowledge and experience of a range of projects, to help more ventures develop and increase the spread of local renewable energy generation. Participants of the site can work collectively to foster the growth of these projects on a national and international scale.

LIVE RECORDING

View live recording here

 

Webinar 21: Incorporating Bioenergy in District Heating Networks

TOPIC OVERVIEW
This presentation was given by IrBEA members REHAU, who specialises in piping and pipe networks. Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) would like to thank Technical Team Leader Alexandra Leedham and Area Sales Manager Rory Grogan who provided a great presentation on the benefits of using bioenergy fuels in District Heating Networks. They provided an insight into the opportunities which exist for district heating and discussed some interesting projects completed by the company.

LIVE RECORDING
You can view the live recording here

Webinar 20: Biomass Trade Centres – Mobilising Ireland’s bioenergy resources to meet the climate challenge

For the past 30 years the Irish government and land owners have invested heavily in establishing a national forest estate. The forest inventory is vital for the provision of sustainable building materials such as lumber. Major by-products of this industry are ideal for use as renewable fuel. By products such as sawdust and bark originating from sawmills is ideal for large scale woodchip and wood pellet supply. Sustainable Forest management practices produce large quantities of thinning’s and brash that can deliver significant value to the private forest owner. European private owners have established co-operative structures to trade their by-product materials such as thinning’s, which are processed into useful products such as firewood and woodchip. These structures allow for greater financial control of their forest resource. In this webinar,  IrBEA looked at some of these models and sees if they could be adopted for Irish conditions.

View Live Recording of Presentation here

Speakers:

Noel Gavigan – IrBEA Technical Executive

Sean Finan – IrBEA CEO

Webinar 19: Sustainable bioenergy – Update from Brussels on a fast changing legislative framework

This webinar focused on the latest policy developments in Brussels regarding Bioenergy including the REDII Directive and the Biodiversity Strategy. It outlined the key findings in the recently published JRC Biomass Report “The use of woody biomass for energy production in the EU” and the review of the Taxonomy Directive.
There was a discussion on the growth of the anti-combustion and anti-bioenergy lobby at a Brussels and an EU level. Webinar participants will also hear about the Lobbying and Advocacy activities of Bioenergy Europe on behalf of the Industry.

View Live Recording of Presentation here

Webinar Speaker
Giulia Cancian

Policy Director at Bioenergy Europe. Giulia Cancian joined the association in 2018. She is responsible for the work of the Advocacy department and sustainability related files. Giulia holds a MA in International Relation from the University of Rome and a MSc in European Affairs from the Free University of Brussels. Before joining Bioenergy Europe, she gained experience on sustainability and energy with the biodiesel, non-ferrous metals and hydropower European trade associations in Brussels.

Webinar No 18: Green Generation – An organisation harnessing the circular economy to decarbonise Ireland

Green Generation based at Nurney, Co Kildare have been delivering for the Circular Bioeconomy by generating energy from waste for a number of years. This rural enterprise uses Anaerobic Digestion (AD) technology to convert food production waste and farm waste into renewable biogas. This biogas is upgraded to biomethane to produce electricity, heat and transport fuel. In partnership with Paltech, Green Generation are now meeting the global plastics problem head on with patented plastics technology. Teresa Patton, Program Manager at Green Generation talked about the company’s circular economy, their facilities in Kildare and the future developments for the company.

LIVE PRESENTATION HERE

Webinar Speaker
Teresa Patton
Program Manager, Green Generation

 

Teresa is a recent MBA graduate at T.U. Dublin and has a varied professional background having qualified with a BA in Interior Architecture. She travelled extensively through the South Pacific and UK in the 2000s, and returned to Ireland in 2012 to continue her career in the speciality F&B industry.

Upon near completion of her MBA, Teresa started with Green Generation as their Program Manager. Her role entails engaging with an array of organisations, both in FMCG and non food sector, in order to reduce their food waste, while implementing a circular economy by using food waste to produce clean, renewable energy.

IrBEA Panellists
Seán Finan (Chair)
IrBEA CEO

Noel Gavigan
IrBEA Technical Executive

Billy Costello
Green Generation

Webinar 17 – Running a successful bioenergy business in rural Ireland – The Cotter Bros story

This webinar showcases the Cotter Brother’s story and how they have developed a successful firewood business in rural Ireland. ‘Cotter Bros Firewood’ are a member of the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance Scheme (WFQA) and are selling quality, certified wood products to a growing market in the Midwest. Nick Cotter presents on the future challenges and opportunities for firewood and bioenergy. He talked about how their firewood business has developed and how they are now exploring other opportunities to grow their business and contribute to the development of the rural economy in the area.

LIVE PRESENTATION HERE

Webinar Speaker

Nick Cotter

Nick started up the ‘Cotter Bros Firewood’ business with his brother Jack when they were 11 and 13 respectively. Nick is now a student of Law and Business at University College Cork, he has recently started his third company with his brother Jack, Cotter Agritech. Their Cotter Crate lamb handling system won ‘Best Agri-Engineering Start-up’ and the Alfred Cox Founder’s Perpetual Trophy for the ‘Best Overall Start-up’ at the 2019 Enterprise Ireland Innovation Awards at the Ploughing Championships. Nick and Jack also won the 2019 Engineers Ireland Student Innovator of the Year Award. They are now both working on bringing these new innovations to market as well and continually driving the firewood business.

Webinar 16: Biochar – Addressing the Climate & Environmental Challenges

Recent years have seen a surge in interest in what is now commonly known as biochar.
Biochar is a carbon rich solid material produced by thermally converting biomass in a low oxygen environment.

In this webinar, we looked at some of the basics behind biochar, at questions such as:

• What is it?
• How is it made?
• What can it be used for?
• How can it aid in addressing the climate and environmental challenges?

Biochar is of particular interest to the following sectors:
• Agriculture, forestry and the farming community (soil amendments, animal feed additives, slurry additives, biofertiliser)
• Waste water management (filtration medium)
• Horticulture (growing medium, peat replacement, soil additives)
• Bioenergy sector (biomass fuels, AD plants)
• Construction industry (asphalt)

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Webinar Speaker

Stephen McCormack 

THREE C Project Officer, IrBEA


Stephen McCormack is the THREE C Project Officer with IrBEA. He has a degree in Environmental Science from IT Sligo and is currently undertaking his Masters in Environmental Sustainability through University College Dublin. He joined the team at IrBEA in 2020, having previously worked alongside them in his role as Project Officer with the Western Development Commission on the RE-DIRECT project, a transnational Interreg North West Europe project that looked at the viability of establishing indigenous biochar and activated carbon production from under-utilised biomass resources. Now working on the follow on project, THREE C (Creating the Carbon Circular Economy), he is tasked with engaging with the growing number of stakeholders looking to further the development of the sector here in Ireland.

LIVE PRESENTATION HERE

Webinar 15: Showcasing Europe’s most advanced Irish owned biorefinery

ClonBio Group Ltd: A snapshot of an Irish led company at the centre of the European bioeconomy: origins, path taken so far and future developments. ClonBio was founded in 2008, was operating a major biorefinery in Hungary by 2010 and has gone on to become Europe’s most dynamic bioeconomy investor.

View the live recording of the Presentation here

Webinar Speaker

James Cogan
ClonBio Group Ltd

James is an industry and policy analyst at ClonBio Group Ltd.  He expertise is on EU climate, innovation and economic development policy. He is currently working to support the introduction of climate friendly E10 petrol in Ireland. He is a member of the Private Sector Mechanism of the UN Committee on Food Security. He represented the world Climate Ethanol Alliance as partner to the UNFCCC at COP24 in Katowice in 2018 and COP25 in Madrid in 2019. He has worked for the European Commission and its partners on innovation finance and innovation project development.