Green Energy Assistance • Solar Shed • Non-Profit Trust • Cúnamh Fuinnimh Glas • Teach Beag Gréine • Neamh-Bhrabúis Iontaobhas
Teach Bheag Gréine Metric Dimensions
The total roof area is approximately 13 square meters. With this area utilized photovoltaic capture, an estimated 13,000 KWH of electricity is provided.
Using the current average price for 2011 of $0.10/KWH or 2 €/W for PVs, the entire 13m² PV roof of the Teach Bheag Gréine costs approximately €1,500.
Renewable Energy Goal To Cost Up To €5B
Meeting Irish renewable energy targets will require investment of up to €5 billion between now and 2020, according to a report from stockbrokers Davy. The Government and the administration in Northern Ireland have both set targets to generate 40 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
A report by Davy analysts Caren Crowley, Barry Dixon and David McNamara, published yesterday, estimates this will require the construction of wind farms capable of generating up to 3,500 megawatts of electricity, in addition to the existing renewable generators. Davy’s researchers calculate that this will require a total investment of €5 billion across Ireland. The report, Ireland’s Electricity Future: Policy and Players Shaping Investment, states that this is likely to favour the country’s existing utilities and established large-scale industry players. It points out that the challenges this will pose for operating the electricity supply system, and a tough environment for raising finance, are having an impact on project finance.
“Accordingly, scarce capital is more likely to be channelled into projects via the utilities and larger, more experienced project developers,” the firm’s analysts say. They add that the four existing utilities – ESB, Bord Gáis Energy, SSE Ireland and Viridian – which have both wind and conventional-power generators, are best placed to support the large-scale roll-out of wind power. Their conventional generators can be used when wind generators cannot – about 65 per cent of the time. Davy suggests that other players, including Element Power, Mainstream Renewable Energy and State-owned Bord na Móna and Coillte, could also feature.
The researchers based their calculations on the likelihood that the Republic and Northern Ireland, which have a single electricity market, will focus on onshore wind to deliver renewable targets.
Barry O'Halloran, The Irish Times, Friday, August 17, 2012
50 Things To Do Before You're 11¾
Can technology help get kids outdoors? Kids don’t spend enough time outside, they don’t interact with nature, and 1 in 10 can’t even ride a bike. What can be done? Well, the National Trust has a few ideas, or more accurately, 50 ideas. Visit their new campaign at 50 Things To Do Before You're 11¾.
Green Groups For Fracking Halt
A coalition of 27 environmental groups has called on the Government to “put a stop to all fracking activity” in Ireland because its “known impacts are so serious”. In a new policy document on hydraulic fracturing of shale gas – commonly known as “fracking” – the Environmental Pillar of Social Partnership referred to the “proposed industrialisation and degradation of our environment across at least nine counties”.
Michael Ewing, co-ordinator of the Environmental Pillar, said the environment and long-term development of rural Ireland was “at risk from the secrecy surrounding the polluting processes involved – the damage done to communities, water supplies and wildlife”. Instead, the Government and EU should “focus their attention on increasing energy efficiency and accelerating the move to renewable energy rather than allowing the development of high-risk, inefficient and polluting gas extraction processes that just add to the problem of climate change”.
In its policy document the pillar says there was no scientific agreement that unconventional gas extraction would have significantly lower total greenhouse gas emissions compared to other conventional fossil fuels, and its development “will be at the expense of cheaper and safer policies”.
It warns that fracking “could cause the contamination of surface and ground water (including drinking water) with toxic chemicals used in fracking fluids and increasing the concentration in such water of methane and hazardous and radioactive materials that naturally occur in shale and coal”.
The document notes that fracking “involves pumping vast amounts of freshwater underground, much of which becomes irretrievable and/or contaminated [and] this will create significant social and environmental pressures at a local and regional level, and particularly in regions suffering from water scarcity”. It also caused air pollution from soot, methane and natural gas as well as noise pollution that would affect local residents, livestock and wildlife and “increases the risks of earthquakes, which in turn increases the risk of damage to, and leakages from, gas wells”, according to the document. “Many of these impacts are not only local but can be felt regionally and even globally. Without a comprehensive scientific assessment of the impacts of fracking in Ireland and across Europe, an unconventional gas boom would be an enormous experiment on the environment and human health.”
It says fracking also runs counter to the EU’s commitment to achieving a high level of environmental and human health protection as well as the precautionary principle – especially in the absence of a comprehensive and detailed analysis of fracking by an independent Irish or EU regulatory agency.
Such a study would have to examine fracking-related air pollution and the long-term health impact, fracking-related water contamination and a full cost-benefit analysis of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts – possibly through a European Commission green paper with full public participation of stakeholders.
To date, the pillar says, “there is no consistent process in Ireland or Europe that properly includes citizens and communities in decision-making” related to fracking, while the companies involved “are not disclosing an exhaustive and detailed list of the chemicals used” for each project.
“Until all these problems are adequately addressed, we believe that no further shale gas, shale oil and coal bed methane activities should proceed. We call on the Government and the European Commission to suspend all ongoing activities, to abrogate permits and to place a ban on any new projects,” it said.Membership of the Environmental Pillar, which was set up in 2009, includes An Taisce, Birdwatch Ireland, Feasta, Friends of the Earth Ireland, the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, the Irish Wildlife Trust, the Organic Centre, Sonairte and Voice.
Frank McDonald, Environment Editor, The Irish Times - Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Michael Ewing, co-ordinator of the Environmental Pillar, said the environment and long-term development of rural Ireland was “at risk from the secrecy surrounding the polluting processes involved – the damage done to communities, water supplies and wildlife”. Instead, the Government and EU should “focus their attention on increasing energy efficiency and accelerating the move to renewable energy rather than allowing the development of high-risk, inefficient and polluting gas extraction processes that just add to the problem of climate change”.
In its policy document the pillar says there was no scientific agreement that unconventional gas extraction would have significantly lower total greenhouse gas emissions compared to other conventional fossil fuels, and its development “will be at the expense of cheaper and safer policies”.
It warns that fracking “could cause the contamination of surface and ground water (including drinking water) with toxic chemicals used in fracking fluids and increasing the concentration in such water of methane and hazardous and radioactive materials that naturally occur in shale and coal”.
The document notes that fracking “involves pumping vast amounts of freshwater underground, much of which becomes irretrievable and/or contaminated [and] this will create significant social and environmental pressures at a local and regional level, and particularly in regions suffering from water scarcity”. It also caused air pollution from soot, methane and natural gas as well as noise pollution that would affect local residents, livestock and wildlife and “increases the risks of earthquakes, which in turn increases the risk of damage to, and leakages from, gas wells”, according to the document. “Many of these impacts are not only local but can be felt regionally and even globally. Without a comprehensive scientific assessment of the impacts of fracking in Ireland and across Europe, an unconventional gas boom would be an enormous experiment on the environment and human health.”
It says fracking also runs counter to the EU’s commitment to achieving a high level of environmental and human health protection as well as the precautionary principle – especially in the absence of a comprehensive and detailed analysis of fracking by an independent Irish or EU regulatory agency.
Such a study would have to examine fracking-related air pollution and the long-term health impact, fracking-related water contamination and a full cost-benefit analysis of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts – possibly through a European Commission green paper with full public participation of stakeholders.
To date, the pillar says, “there is no consistent process in Ireland or Europe that properly includes citizens and communities in decision-making” related to fracking, while the companies involved “are not disclosing an exhaustive and detailed list of the chemicals used” for each project.
“Until all these problems are adequately addressed, we believe that no further shale gas, shale oil and coal bed methane activities should proceed. We call on the Government and the European Commission to suspend all ongoing activities, to abrogate permits and to place a ban on any new projects,” it said.Membership of the Environmental Pillar, which was set up in 2009, includes An Taisce, Birdwatch Ireland, Feasta, Friends of the Earth Ireland, the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, the Irish Wildlife Trust, the Organic Centre, Sonairte and Voice.
Frank McDonald, Environment Editor, The Irish Times - Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Sustainability Summit Galway
Experts in green finance and clean technology speak about Ireland’s opportunity to innovate and capitalize on its clean energy, ICT and financial expertise to become a global exemplar and an exporter of scale of renewable energy. Last month, July 2012, a sustainability conference – Enabling, Financing and Delivering Sustainable Growth Summit – took place in Galway. More than 150 delegates from the finance, clean-tech, venture capital and sustainability sectors, as well as policy-makers, converged at the conference to share ideas.In the video excerpt, we hear from experts in the finance, climate bonds and green business space who talk about Ireland's opportunity Sean Kidney, chairman, Climate Bonds Initiative, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte, TD, David Guest, chairman, Green IFSC Steering Group, Coillte CEO David Gunning and Dublin City Council's green business officer Mark Bennett.
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