Webinar No 7: The Role of Edenderry Power in the Irish biomass Supply Chain

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Ireland currently derives just 4% of its energy from bioenergy, this needs to rise to 15% by 2030 with further deployment beyond to meet Paris Agreement targets.  By 2024 Edenderry Power intends to run solely on 100% sustainable biomass.  Sustainable biomass consumption at Edenderry will ensure that the Midlands will continue its long history of energy supply, moving to low carbon sources.   The associated socio-economic benefits of this will align with the principles of the Just Transition.  This will ensure an indigenous market for a broad range of lower grade and residual forest products, also supporting the development of biomass supply chains for the Heat sector.  This brings with it significant commercial opportunities for growers, processors and suppliers, as well as jobs and benefits for rural development.

View live presentation here and the presentation slides here

Speakers

John MacNamara
Head of Regulatory Affairs at Bord na Móna

Dr John MacNamara heads up Bord na Móna’s Regulatory Affairs team. This team actively engages with policymakers, regulators, trade associations and legislators at local, national and international levels, to ensure Bord na Mona’s strategic direction is aligned with forthcoming legislation, policy decisions and regulatory rule sets.  John is company secretary for the Electricity Association of Ireland, vice-chair of IBEC’s Energy Provides Group (EPC) and a member of the Brussels based Eurelectric ‘s Wholesale Markets Design Working Group. John has previously worked with the EPA as a senior scientist as well as in the private environmental sector, and he holds a PhD in Combustion Chemistry and an LLB in Irish Law.

Joseph Spollen 
Biomass Manager at Bord na Móna Power Generation


Joseph has extensive knowledge of the Bioenergy sector having held technical roles in both heat and power generation in the UK and Ireland, involving the development and operation of biomass supply chains, a graduate of UCD, DIT and Brunel University London. Joseph’s role as Biomass Manager is to ensure the delivery of Sustainable Biomass to Edenderry Power.

IrBEA Panellists

Seán Finan – IrBEA CEO – Meeting Chair

Noel Gavigan – IrBEA Technical Executive

Webinar No 6: Biomass options for domestic heating

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Decarbonising Irelands housing stock is a significant task that needs to be undertaken in the next 15 to 20 years. Current plans call for deep retrofitting 60,000 houses per year for the next 10 years so that these houses reduce their heating demand to a level suitable for heat pumps, or other low heat systems. With Ireland struggling to build 30,000 houses per year for a variety of reasons including labour shortages it is obvious that the plan to deep retrofit 600,000 houses by 2030 can not be achieved. Biomass heating with wood pellet boilers or gasification boilers offer the opportunity to dramatically reduce carbon emissions from houses traditionally using oil and peat, and to do so at much less cost than the deep retrofit / heat pump model. In this webinar the discussion was about the costs and practicality of converting houses to biomass and the technology available to householders.

View the live Webinar here and the presentation slides here

Webinar No 5: Producing quality wood fuels for the Irish market

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Wood and biomass used for heating have the lowest emissions of carbon of all dispatchable renewable heating systems, reducing emissions by as much as 94% from that of using heating oil. Wood fuel quality is an essential component of ensuring the maximum efficiency, minimising harmful emissions, and ensuring that heating appliances are maintained. In this webinar IrBEA will hear from two WFQA certified suppliers of wood fuels. They will discuss the aspects of producing consistent quality fuels, the benefits for consumers and how this has positively assisted their businesses to confidently supply the market, and to grow their own market share. The future for wood fuels is directly linked to the need to decarbonise our economies. Wood fuels predominantly come from forest and sawmill residues, ensuring that forest management can utilise all the woody material in the forest, with little waste and maximize utilisation of our resources.

View the live Webinar here and the presentation slides here

Speakers

John Sherlock – Sherlogs

Ken McCauley – McCauley Wood Fuels

Noel Gavigan – IrBEA Technical Director (Chair)

Webinar 3: Biodiesel and Bioethanol reducing transport emissions – 8th July 2020

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This webinar, the third in the ‘IrBEA Bioenergy Webinar Series 2020’ heard from industry experts in the areas of biodiesel and bioethanol.   The Irish Bioenergy Association thank everyone for taking the time to join us this week.

A recording of the presentation can be found HERE  and the presentations slides HERE

Our next online webinar will be held shortly we will keep you updated.

Webinar 2: District Heating Decarbonising our Heat Demands

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On Wednesday June 24th, IrBEA hosted a second webinar as part of the recently commenced IrBEA Bioenergy Webinar Series 2020. The webinar included informative presentations from John O’Shea who is responsible for energy systems analysis at Codema (Dublin Energy Agency). The webinar outlined the potential for district heating in Ireland alongside an examination of potential heat sources. John updated us on the Dublin District Heating System (DDHS) which is now at Phase 2 and Dublin City Council have initiated  procuring a Consultant to examine the strategies for managing and administering the project. The District Heating (DH) network will cover the Docklands and Poolbeg areas which will recover and distribute the waste heat from plants located primarily on the Poolbeg peninsula.

Steve Richmond from REHAU UK also presented, this company are experts in District Heating and Polymer pipe solution technology. He shared valuable technological expertise and financial modelling as well as commentaries on District Heating installation in the UK. REHAU employ over 20,000 people worldwide and are one of the UK market leaders in polymer district heating pipework.

If you would like to see the webinar view here

If you would like to see the webinar presentation slides view here

 

Webinar 1: Using the right fuel, the right way, in the right appliance

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Noel Gavigan and Eugene Hendrick had an information packed one hour presentation on domestic and commercial renewable heating. They discussed the differences between wood pellet and woodchip boilers and stoves. This was followed by discussing the choice of appliances and the need to move toward efficient low carbon options such as eco-design stoves. Wood fuel was discussed in detail and the need for the fuel to be certified through the WFQA Scheme which insures below 20% moisture content which both increases efficiency of heating but also minimises emissions to air for the consumer. Finally there was a discussion on industrial use for wood fuel. It was emphasised that wood chip and wood pellets offer the only viable solution for renewable supply of heat or steam. It is has in fact got the lowest carbon footprint for heat of all the fuel options and we now have the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat available for commercial projects which gives grants for a 15 year period.

If you would like to see the webinar please view here

If you would like to view the presentation slides please view here