Bioenergy 2016 - Highlights, key points and presentations
200 participants attend 15th National Bioenergy Conference
- IrBEA urges early introduction of RHI to accelerate switch to bioenergy and create 3000 new jobs
- IrBEA calls on political parties to declare positions on the environment and prioritise policies to combat climate change
- Conference hears from Swedish and Danish speakers who said it would be untenable for political parties in most western European countries to be silent on the environment and climate change against the backdrop of the commitments given at COP21 in Paris in December 2015
The 200-strong attendance at IrBEA’s 15th National Bioenergy Conference on Wed 3rd February heard calls for speeding up roll-out of a renewable heat incentive (RHI) to accelerate the switch from fossil fuels to bioenergy. New IrBEA President, Michael Doran, said: “The bioenergy sector sits at the intersection of energy, agriculture and climate change policies. It is also unique in that it is a truly regionalised, ground-up industry that stimulates economic activity locally for farmers, those involved in designing and installing bioenergy systems and the businesses and consumers that benefit from effective, secure and sustainable heating. We need to accelerate the switch to renewable sources of power right across our economy, in electricity, in transport and in heating. This is our obligation under international treaties to prevent potentially catastrophic climate change, and in our own self-interest as a society and an island economy that is dependent on imported, polluting fossil fuels for 85% of our energy needs.”
A motion declared at the end of the conference delivered a strong message for political parties and candidates in this month’s general election: IrBEA President Michael Doran summarised: “The lack of debate and focus on environmental policies and on how Ireland is to meet its international obligations to combat climate change from most of our political parties is puzzling and would not be tenable in most western European countries. Ireland faces huge challenges in making a step change in moving Ireland from a lacklustre performance on environmental issues to becoming a global leader in meeting its climate change obligations. The Parties seeking election and a role in the new government should say what policies they propose to pursue to ensure Ireland plays its part in combating climate change in meeting Ireland’s international obligations and avoid damaging and costly fines on Ireland of up to €600m per annum.”
Eamonn McGrath (Conference sponsor Gaelectric) stressed the sector must make the business case to attract investors for the sector to expand. “With the right mix of policies, the Irish bioenergy sector can double in size. The alternative scenarios of fines of up to €600 million a year for missing EU targets, lost opportunities for job creation and continuing dependence on imported, polluting fossil fuels should not be acceptable. Biomass is essential to delivering the “distributed energy” future. FDI is now renewable energy led – a key to host country selection. And multinationals have 100% RE targets, well in excess of Government targets.”
DCENR restated their plan is still to conclude and roll out an RHI and a renewable electricity support scheme (RESS) by the end of this year. Frank Groome (DCENR Decarbonisation section) summarised stakeholder feedback so far. Read other important details going forward to concluding the consultation and finalisation of both RHI and RESS.
The conference featured policy presentations from Professor Alan Matthews of Trinity College on the EU Energy Union and implications for the Irish agri-food sector; Dr Cara Augustenborg of Friends of the Earth Ireland with a view of bioenergy’s global and national role post COP21; and a very well researched sector policy analysis from Prof Patricia Thornley of Manchester University’s SuperGen Bioenergy Hub. Energy experts from Sweden (Kjell Andersson) and Denmark (Finn Mortensen) outlined how those countries have grown their bioenergy sectors exponentially in a short time. The event concluded with B9 Energy‘s practical overview of The Granville Ecopark biogas development in Dungannon. Energy Minister Alex White was not available to address the conference due to the pending election, his speech was delivered by Eamonn Confrey (Principal Officer DCENR Decarbonisation).
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