bioenergy and the western region – contributing to the ... · 2 bioenergy 2 2.1 what is...

Bioenergy and theWestern Region

Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans

February 2012

Table of Contents

Executive Summary v

1 Introduction 1

2 Bioenergy 2

2.1 What is bioenergy? 2

2.2 How can bioenergy help the Western Region counties and cities? 5

2.3 The imperative for bioenergy in the Western Region 6

2.3.1 Securing current and future energy supply 6

2.3.2 Attracting inwards investment 6

2.3.3 Stabilising and renewing rural communities 7

2.3.4 Transitioning the problem of waste into an income generating resource 8

3 EU, UK & Government policy 10

3.1 European energy policy and regulation 10

3.1.1 RES Directive 10

3.1.2 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) (Proposed) 11

3.1.3 Strategic energy technology (SET) Plan 11

3.1.4 Public procurement 11

3.1.5 Green public procurement 12

3.1.6 Biomass action plan 12

3.1.7 Environmental policies 12

3.1.8 Agricultural policies. 13

3.1.9 Summary 13

3.2 UK Policy 14

3.3 National policy 15

3.3.1 County Development Plans 15

3.3.2 National Renewable Energy Action Plan 15

3.3.3 Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT) 15

3.3.4 Government targets – the 2007 Energy White Paper 15

3.3.5 National climate change strategy 2007 – 2012 17

3.3.6 Biofuels obligation scheme (BOS) 17

3.3.7 National development plan 2007 – 2013 (NDP) 17

3.3.8 Carbon tax 17

3.3.9 What’s missing? 17

Contents

iBioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

Contents

4 CDPs and a holistic view of bioenergy – the high priority areas 19

4.1 Built environment 20

4.1.1 Land use zonings 21

4.1.2 Regeneration and Renewal 21

4.2 Employment, Economy and Enterprise 21

4.2.1 Agricultural development 22

4.2.2 Energy 22

4.2.3 Rural Enterprise 22

4.3 Energy 23

4.3.1 Bioenergy 23

4.3.2 Electricity network 24

4.3.3 Heat energy 24

4.3.4 Low carbon economy 24

4.3.5 Renewable energy 25

4.3.6 Vision 26

4.4 Environment 26

4.4.1 Biodiversity 27

4.4.2 Climate Change 27

[Box] Biofuels, jobs and investment from waste 28

4.4.3 Natura 2000 28

4.4.4 Waste disposal 29

4.5 Rural development 30

4.5.1 Forestry 30

4.5.2 Rural communities 30

4.5.3 Rural enterprise 31

4.6 Travel 31

4.6.1 Forestry 31

4.6.2 Motorways and national roads 32

4.7 Water and Wastewater treatment 32

4.7.1 Water quality protection 32

5 CDPs and secondary priority areas 33

5.1 Built environment 33

5.1.1 Land use zonings 33

5.1.2 Renewable energy 33

5.1.3 Zoning matrix 34

5.2 Cultural, social and community development 34

5.2.1 Social inclusion 34

5.3 Employment, Economy and Enterprise 35

5.3.1 Agricultural development 35

5.3.2 Energy 35

ii Bioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

Contents

5.4 Energy 35

5.4.1 Energy Efficiency 35

5.4.2 Energy security 36

5.4.3 Gas network 36

5.5 Environment 36

5.5.1 Agricultural waste 36

5.5.2 Air pollution 37

5.5.3 Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste 37

5.5.4 Noise pollution 38

5.5.5 Soils 38

5.6 Landscape 39

5.6.1 Visual amenity 39

5.7 Travel 39

5.7.1 Motorways and national roads 39

5.7.2 Smarter travel 39

5.7.3 Travel 40

5.8 Tourism 40

5.8.1 Eco-tourism 40

5.8.2 Rural tourism 41

5.9 Water and Wastewater treatment 41

5.9.1 Wastewater treatment 41

6 Taking action – leveraging the benefits of bioenergy 42

6.1 The change framework 42

6.2 Immediate actions 43

6.2.1 Leadership 43

6.2.2 Communication 44

6.3 Longer term actions 46

6.3.1 Standardizing the approach to bioenergy within the Western Region 46

6.3.2 Decreasing the costs of renewable energy – planning and RD&D 46

6.3.3 Financing 47

6.3.4 Additional communication measures 47

6.3.5 Planning 48

[Box] Renewable Energy Zones 48

7 Summary 49

iiiBioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

Contents

Disclaimer: All reasonable measures have been taken to ensure the quality, reliability, and accuracy of the information in this report. This report is intended

to provide information and general guidance only. If you are seeking advice on any matters relating to information on this report, you should contact the

WDC with your specific query or seek advice from a qualified professional expert.

AcknowledgementsThis report was produced by Dr. Michael Wilson, Heritage Futures Ltd with contributions from Bernadette Phelan, WDC/RASLRES

Heritage Futures Ltd. — 70 Murphystown Road, Dublin 18

T: 087 067 6595 E: [email protected]

iv Bioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

Executive SummaryBioenergy is expected to provide 61% of European and 44% of Irish renewable energy by 2020. It will take local action to deliver these targets. For Irish local authorities, it is not a question of if bioenergy will be pursued, but which type of bioenergy is most appropriate and how best to deliver it. Fortunately one reason that bioenergy is so popular with policy makers is because it has the capability to deliver, or assist in delivery of a multitude of other local authority priorities. This creates a major and highly important role for county and regional action on bioenergy development in Ireland through a combination of taking the lead; making it easy to do business; and providing market confidence.

Counties and cities in the Western Region are trying to find ways to deliver their responsibility to sustainably improve the quality of life in an environment of shrinking budgets and reduced resources. One part of their many obligations is to facilitate renewable energy development in line with national targets. The Western Development Commission, through the European funded RASLRES programme, is producing this report as the latest of several pieces of work in cooperation with the councils to assist them in assessing the benefits of bioenergy and how they may be leveraged. It is the first part of the RASLRES action plan agreed with the Local Authorities working group. This report has looked at the county development plans and how bioenergy can both impact on them, and be impacted by them. The result is that, if considered holistically under the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental sustainability bioenergy has the potential to help deliver many of the responsibilities touched on in the County Development Plans.

This report provides the background as to how bioenergy can benefit councils in the Western Region. They have a common set of working areas and objectives, with small variations, and bioenergy can in many instances help deliver these objectives, particularly in the areas of attracting inwards investment; employment creation; rural regeneration; climate change; energy security; and a secure business environment.

The context for bioenergy development at European Union, UK and national level is also provided. A large number of directives and actions either directly or indirectly address bioenergy. These are generally positive towards bioenergy development, although some restrictions will limit specific types of bioenergy development such as anaerobic digestion from animal by-products. The main message is that substantial renewable energy development will need to occur by 2020, and, given the energy consumption pattern in Ireland, this will need to occur across the spectrum of heat, transport and electricity. The renewable heat incentives in the UK and Northern Ireland can be expected to drive a significant demand for biomass that opens the opportunity to develop a supply industry for export, thereby enabling development of scale in the supply industry within Ireland and also bringing foreign funds into Ireland. The resultant confidence in biomass supply will facilitate development of biomass conversion facilities in the Region, with resultant fossil fuel import displacement, increased security of supply and other benefits arising from distributed energy generation.

To meet the national renewable heats target will require local action. Welivery of the heat target will rely heavily on county strategies and action plans on energy and climate change. As bioenergy remains the best renewable energy option for delivering heat, it will need to be a significant part of the renewable energy portfolio. This is particularly so in the Western Region which will need to provide a disproportionate share of the renewable heat target as renewable heat is most cost competitive in areas off the gas network – which most of Western Region is.

Research in this report has highlighted existing best practice within the CDPs and where improvements can be made. This can be used as a benchmark against which councils can compare themselves and set objectives. The best practice elements are presented in similar sections to the county development plans to enable rapid uptake in new county development plans should this be desired. Additional actions are split into

Executive Summary

vBioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

Executive Summary

those that can be undertaken quickly and easily – such as demonstrated and public leadership; and some that will take greater consideration and effort to implement, such as standardising the approach to bioenergy across the region.

Conclusions and recommendationsCouncils in the Western Region are already taking a wide variety of very positive steps towards assisting bioenergy development. These can be built upon and extended to produce a vibrant and sustainable local industry that attracts foreign investment. To do so, the key recommendations arising from this report are:

1. Create the vision. The county and regional vision for bioenergy will drive the necessary council action. This action may include identifying specific outcomes and targets.

2. Organisational reform to deliver change. A clearly defined and assigned senior level role for renewable energy that includes a brief to deliver on bioenergy. This role to be heavily and directly supported by the county manager, and have cross-cutting access and powers as bioenergy cuts across many areas.

3. Set out a clear pathway to achieving the vision. This sets out the approach to be taken and could include for example delivering leadership; regional cooperation and standardization of approach; and creating a welcoming and well communicated environment for bioenergy. It starts by benchmarking the council approach through comparing their CDP with the best practice identified in this report.

4. Implementation of the pathway. Deliver the actions that have been identified, many of which may come from the suggestions in Chapters 4 and 5.

5. Monitor, evaluate and adjust. By undertaking these necessary steps the pathway and its implementation can be adjusted and optimized to most rapidly and efficiently deliver the targeted bioenergy outcome.

Some of the specific areas that may be addressed include:

g Making it easy to do business.

g Standardising the approach to bioenergy across the region is crucial

g Developing clear, transparent assessment criteria

g Developing planning application ticksheets

g Publishing timetables for assessing applications and keeping to them

g Developing a one-stop shop for bioenergy projects

g Providing practical leadership.

g Procure against the triple bottom line

g Implement best practice in Green Public Procurement

g Install high profile bioenergy facilities into council properties

g Investigate potential financing options

The policy and market analysis set out in this report clearly illustrates how the adoption of bioenergy technology can create many benefits for the Western Region and thereby actively address a range of council objectives. Councils in the Western Region can provide the environment to rapidly generate significant economic, social and environmental benefits within rural and urban communities. To do so requires each council to take action to adopt best practice, set a vision with regard to bioenergy, and cooperate on bioenergy at a regional level.

vi Bioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

Executive Summary

County and City councils around Ireland are struggling to maintain their previous levels of service as the budget cutbacks take effect. Irish local authorities are competing in a tight marketplace for inwards investment to help move into recovery and from there into prosperity. With limited resources, it is hard to understand how to meet the challenges outlined for councils in the requirements for the County Development Plans; almost impossible to find resources and time to explore the potential of areas outside of existing expertise. With this in mind, the Western Development Commission through its European funded RASLRES programme has commissioned this report into bioenergy and the councils of the Western Region. This report explores how bioenergy is currently treated in the County Development Plans, including an analysis of best practice; how bioenergy can contribute to attaining council targets across a broad range of areas; the current and likely future policy and international environment; and specific actions that councils can take to facilitate further bioenergy development and take advantage of the rewards of inwards investment, job creation, business development, rural regeneration, and attainment of county development plan targets that arise.

Development of this report has occurred through a combination of reading published material and consultation with key stakeholders. The County Development Plans for the seven counties in the Western Region, and the Galway City Council Development Plan have been reviewed with respect to their promotion of and impact on bioenergy. This has included not just statements directly addressing bioenergy, but also statements and ambitions that can either impact on bioenergy indirectly, or be impacted upon by bioenergy development. For instance, diversification of rural enterprise is a common theme, and bioenergy can help to deliver this outcome. Alongside reviewing these development plans have been discussions with the Clare Energy Agency and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). These have enabled a greater understanding of both the national and regional context for the county development plans, and how SEAI will seek to work with the local authorities to further facilitate renewable energy in general. This report and its outcomes is seen as being complementary and synergistic with that work, as has already been determined through the RASLRES meeting with SEAI in November. Preliminary findings from the review were shared with the RASLRES local authorities working group at a meeting on the 15th November 2011, and their feedback has been incorporated into the structure and content of this report.

This report is set out as follows:

g Chapters 2 & 3 provide context on bioenergy and the policy environment impacting on the Western Region.

g Chapters 4 & 5 are specifically aimed at planners in the Western Region. They are set out to follow the key heading areas within County Development Plans and identify current best practice and possible options for counties to take.

g Chapter 6 sets out a number of recommendations for consideration by the Western Region councils, and

g Chapter 7 briefly summarises this report.

Introduction 1

1Bioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

2.1 What is bioenergy?Bioenergy is useful energy (for heating, transport and electricity) derived from recently living organisms. There are many possible pathways to take bioenergy feedstock and convert it to useful energy. The following diagram provides an overview of the generic pathway:

BioenergyFuel

Basic bioenergy pathway

SupplyChain

Conversionto energy

By-products

There are many bioenergy fuels (usually referred to as biomass) and many more ways of treating and delivering them. Figure 1 gives a very high level overview of the main biomass routes to bioenergy and the principal categories of biomass.

Biomass typically falls into the following categories:

Biomass group Examples

Purpose grown fuels Energy crops – SRC Willow; Miscanthus; Reed Canary Grass; Algae

Forestry residues Forestry thinnings; sawmill residues

Agricultural residues Manure; straw; chicken litter

Waste Biodegradable municipal waste; wastewater; industrial sludges

Of these, the two that are most abundant and readily and commercially available in the Western Region are forestry residues and waste. RASLRES completed an analysis of the potential for bioenergy in the Western Region, Energy Crop Opportunities in the Western Region, to assess the new opportunities within the sector1.

1 2011. Energy Crop Opportunities in the Western Region. Western Development Commission.

2Bioenergy

2 Bioenery and the Western Region Contributing to the attainment of County Development Plans February 2012

Figure 1 Overview of bioenergy pathways2

2 Kretschmer, B. et al, August 2011 Securing biomass for energy – developing an environmentally responsible industry for the UK now and into the future.[pdf] Institute for European Environmental Policy. Available at: http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/about-us/publications/Documents/ieep-uk-responsible-bioenergy-2011-08-16-final.pdf [Accessed 30th November 2011]

BIOMASS TO BIOENERGY PROCESSES

BIOENERGY USE

BIOMASS SOURCES

Co-generational(CHP)

ferm

enta

tion

tran

sest

erifi

catio

nre

finin

g

crus

hing

extr

actio

n

hydr

olys

is

hydr

olys

is

com

bust

ion

pyro

lysi

s

gasi

ficat

ion

anae

robi

c

ferm

enta

tion

Forestry cropsand residues

Agricultural cropsand residues

Animalresidues

Industrialresidues

Municipal waste &Sewage Sludge

Transport

Liquid biofuels Electricity Heat Vapour

Biodiesel(methyl-ester)

Vegetable oil

Oil crops(rape,

sunflower etc.)

Sugar and starch plants(sugar-beet,cereals etc.)

Solid biomass(wood, straw,

agri-cropsand residues etc.)

Wet biomass(organic waste,

manure etc.)

SugarPyrolytic

oilFuelgas

ETBE Ethanol

Electricity Supply Heating

District Heating

Ind. process

Biogas


Bioenergy

Bioenergy supply chains are mostly highly localised, and may involve some pre-processing steps, e.g. drying wood residues and converting them into woodchips or wood pellets. In Ireland, biomass is nearly always transported by road. The localisation of the supply chain results in business opportunities; employment; and income all being highly local to the bioenergy conversion facility.

Many biomass conversion technologies are mature and highly efficient. Conversion facilities either combust the biomass directly (i.e. woodchip fired CHP); or convert the biomass into a different fuel form that is then combusted to provide the energy type required (e.g. converting waste into methane for use in CHP, injection into a gas grid, or transport purposes; or converting biomass into liquid biofuels such as bioethanol or biodiesel for transport).

There are by-products from bioenergy generation. Many of these are commercially valuable commodities – e.g. rape cake for animal feed; anaerobic digestate as a fertilizer substitute – but some may end up as landfill (e.g. relatively small amounts of ash from a waste-to-energy facility).

Bioenergy is also unique amongst renewable energies in that:

g It can provide energy on-demand

g It can directly and relatively efficiently (to competing processes) provide energy for heat, transport and electricity.

These properties make bioenergy an essential and significant component of any large scale renewable energy portfolio.

Example 1: Forestry resourceThis example shows forestry being thinned, with the thinnings converted to wood chips for use in an industrial CHP facility. The CHP facility produces both heat and electricity for either on-site use or export. By managing the forestry resource the farmer is producing better quality wood, gaining an additional income stream, and supporting local contractors. The CHP facility offers greater energy security for the industrial facility as the fuel supply is local; can produce energy on demand; and is highly efficient. The energy produced is low carbon, hence has less climate change impact than a similar fossil fuel fired CHP facility, and by utilising high efficiency CHP and distributing energy generation meets some of the forthcoming requirements from the EU Directive on Energy Efficiency.

• Faster carbon uptake• Increased timber value• Increased farm income• Diversified production• Rural business• Local jobs

Forest thinnings Wood chips

Heat & Electricity

• Energy security• On-demand energy• Efficient energy production• Distributed energy production• Low carbon energy• Comply with draft EED

Industrial CHP


Bioenergy

2.2 How can bioenergy help the Western Region counties and cities?Local authorities in Ireland are being asked to continue to deliver a full range of services with reduced income and staff numbers. They are also operating under the aegis of county and city councillors and the political environment this entails.

Under these conditions, any instrument that can help deliver multiple local authority services at reduced cost warrants close consideration. Bioenergy is one such instrument.

Considered holistically, with reference to county and city council visions and obligations, bioenergy becomes very valuable. Some of the key areas that bioenergy can help deliver include:

g Clean, reliable, secure and economic energy supply

g Economic development

g Employment

g Rural regeneration

g Clean alternative transport options

g Landfill reduction and waste treatment, and

g Climate change

These are considered in more detail in Chapter 4 CDPs and a holistic view of bioenergy, and also Chapter 5 CDPs and secondary priority areas.

Many research studies have been conducted into the net benefits of bioenergy, particularly within the EU. The most comprehensive study summarizing these benefits is the IEA Bioenergy publication, Benefits of Bioenergy3 which includes, amongst others, the following benefits:

g Environmental. Bioenergy can ensure that maximum use is made of finite resources; that groundwater supplies are protected; landfill is reduced; biodiversity increased; and climate change impacts reduced.

g Social. ‘Bioenergy can add value to products already in the economy’4. It also tends to operate at a community or local level, resulting in increased local employment; improved farm profitability; rural diversification; energy security; rural regeneration and local wealth creation.

g Economic. Net gain in employment; improved trade balance (locally and nationally) through displaced energy imports; additional income streams from utilising wastes and residues; decreased energy costs compared to alternatives in some markets.

Some other notable publications referencing the benefits of bioenergy include UNEP 20115; German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety 20116; SEF Alliance 20097; Domac et. al. 20058; and the European Energy Commission 19999.

Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) is a worldwide organisation that works directly with local authorities and communities to promote and facilitate local action on climate change. On its website it publishes a number of reasons to use local renewable energy10 (including bioenergy) which nearly all

3 IEA Bioenergy, 2005. Benefits of Bioenergy [pdf] Available at: http://abengoa.es/corp/export/sites/abengoa_corp/resources/pdf/biofuels/Agricultural_development/fuente1.pdf [Accessed 4th December 2011].

4 ibid5 UNEP, 2011, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, www.unep.org/greeneconomy6 Jaeger et. al., 2011. A New Growth Path for Europe. Generating Prosperity and Jobs in the Low-Carbon Economy Synthesis Report.

European Climate Forum e.V., Potsdam, Germany.7 SEF Alliance, 2009. Why clean energy public investment makes economic sense – the evidence base8 Domac, J.; Richards K. & Risovic S. 2005. Socio-economic drivers in implementing bioenergy projects. Biomass & Bioenergy 28(2) p95-266.9 1999. The impact of renewables on employment and economic growth: Altener Programme – Directorate General of Energy of the

European Commission (TREN)10 http://local-renewables.iclei.org/


Bioenergy

address aspects in the County Development Plans. These reasons include decreasing costs, adding income streams and local employment, and increasing the resilience of communities – including rural communities which are particularly at risk in the Western Region. Increasing use of local bioenergy will also contribute to climate protection and achieving national targets for sustainable energy and climate change, targets that directly concern the Western Region through the 2007 Energy White Paper11.

2.3 The imperative for bioenergy in the Western Region

2.3.1 Securing current and future energy supply

Published research has documented the fantastic opportunity12 that counties and cities in the Western Region have to develop a diverse portfolio of energy sources based on their own natural resources. Such an approach offers the chance to build the Western region economically, and also to attract inwards investment drawn by the attraction of secure local energy supply at competitive rates that can be guaranteed to show relatively small price fluctuations. The price stability thus gained is essential to attract major inwards investment as it cuts out a major risk factor for potential investors. Developing a complete renewable energy portfolio in which bioenergy is a very substantial part will enable synergies to be leveraged from all renewable energy installed.

Bioenergy resources in the Western Region are diverse and substantial. As such, a large contribution to the energy portfolio can be derived from bioenergy. Thus far, bioenergy ambition has been muted and linked to the 2007 Energy White Paper. The Western Region can look far beyond the limitations of such policy to set an ambition based on the abundance of natural resources that it possesses. In doing so, it can also ensure that the energy portfolio is able to deliver cost-effective energy-on-demand in all three energy sectors – heat, transport and electricity.

2.3.2 Attracting inwards investment

Regional economic growth, job creation, prosperity and the partially related quality of life will depend heavily on inwards investment in the short-to-medium term. The Irish government is rapidly reducing spending to correct a major budgetary imbalance, and Irish banks are unable and unwilling to make substantial investment funds available. Remaining operational indigenous investors with substantial funds are relatively rare. Hence there is a reduction in spending in the Western Region that can only be redressed through attracting international capital.

The energy infrastructure available can be a major factor for many overseas investors when deciding where to make their next investment. They are looking for a consistent, secure, and, often, clean energy supply at a competitive price. Renewable energy, and, in particular, bioenergy, can meet these requirements and play a major role in attracting investment.

The Western Region can leverage the areas in which Ireland is already an international leader through generating a highly visible, reputable and diverse renewable energy portfolio in which bioenergy features heavily. The IT sector is strong in Ireland, with the IDA pushing hard to capture a disproportionate share of the cloud computing industry. This industry has large data centres, which require both a substantial electricity supply (up to 1MW per data centre at peak times13) and substantial energy for cooling. This makes it an ideal target for biomass fired CHP which can meet both requirements, cost effectively, cleanly and on-demand. The Western Region will also in 2013 have an advantage over the rest of Ireland through the completion of a high speed data cable from New York to Belmullet, providing high speed commercial broadband to the Region.

11 Government White Paper: Delivering a Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland (2007)12 Refer to publications from the local energy agencies; the Western Development Commission; and the Sustainable Energy Authority of

Ireland, amongst others.13 New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (www.nyserda.ny.gov)


Bioenergy

Ireland is a world leader in the pharmaceutical industry and in the Medical Technologies14. These industries often have a requirement for high temperature process heating that must be provided by a combustion process – again a major target for bioenergy. In October 2011 the pharmaceutical company Astellas agreed a contract with Coillte to supply a 1.8MW biomass boiler in Co. Kerry15 demonstrating that industrial scale biomass facilities can be successful in Ireland.

Ireland also has a world leading food industry, which facilitates attracting foreign investment. Danone opted to locate a new €50 million facility in Macroom recently, but nearly didn’t because of the high cost of energy. They are actively looking at biomass as a way to reduce energy costs.16 This facility will provide 200 construction jobs, 40 ongoing jobs, an increase in exports of €150 million and increase spending on raw materials by €65 million17. The potential to attract such investment in the Western Region can be significantly increased by facilitating, encouraging and driving sustainable energy production across heat, transport and electricity.

2.3.3 Stabilising and renewing rural communities

The Western Region has the oldest farming population in Ireland18. The extent of the aging population can be seen in Figure 2. Young people are not taking on farming in the region, farms are generally small and fragmented and not viable without grant payments. As the farming population ages, there is a risk that many farms will be inherited by second and third generation emigrants that have no tie to the land. This may create opportunities for farm consolidation and enlargement through land sales and rental, or the land may simply cease to be farmed. In any case, the social fabric of rural Ireland is suffering, with a lack of real employment and business options. To renew rural Ireland in the Western Region will require new businesses with requirements for a diverse range of roles, skills and abilities. These problems and needs have been consistently recognized within the Western Region County and City development plans. Bioenergy development can play a major role in renewing rural areas. Bioenergy is local, and hence businesses will also be local. It requires a wide range of employment types such as farmers; skilled machine operators; hauliers; office, administrative and financial staff; engineers; salespeople and maintenance mechanics. Most businesses operating in the bioenergy supply chain will be of modest size and therefore more likely to be operated from rural locations. The income generated from bioenergy

14 http://www.idaireland.com/business-in-ireland/life-sciences-medical-tec/15 http://www.coillte.ie/aboutcoillte/news/article/view/coillte-and-astellas-ireland-conclude-milestone-five-year-contract-for-fuel-supply/16 http://www.farmersjournal.ie/site/farming.php?newsid=1371517 http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/kfeyauojgbid/rss2/18 Private Communication, David Meredith, Teagasc

Figure 2 Map showing aging farmer population in the Western Region, courtesy of David Meredith, Teagasc.


Bioenergy

is returned into the local community, not to some remote shareholder, and the resultant local spending then has positive knock-on effects for rural employment and services.

In addition, if the bioenergy conversion facilities are themselves in the local towns it will help to deliver a sense of ownership and community from those growing, pre-treating and delivering the biomass that in turn is likely to lead to better service; faster and simpler resolution of any problems that might arise; and reduced profiteering where such opportunity arises. The increased sense of community is essential to maintaining and developing the wider rural social fabric. Such distributed renewable energy generation will also deliver increasing community energy independence.

Example 2: Employment and benefits from energy cropsThe following example illustrates the number and range of employment that can be generated through installing an energy crop fuelled biomass boiler. In this example wastewater is bio-remediated on SRC Willow, providing a cost-effective waste treatment and resulting in a higher yield of willow. The willow is harvested and processed before supplying the installed biomass boiler that is providing low cost heating for a tourist facility. There are a range of positions from farm labourers through skilled machine operators to highly trained professionals. Note that this is not a comprehensive list of employment generated.

• Delivery

Jobs

Benefits

• Plumber

Industrial wasterwater Energy crops

• Farm 1 – grow stems• Planting x3 (min.)• On farm – maintenance• Harvesting• Builder (storage)

• Waste as resource• Decreased treatment costs

• Faster growth• No fertiliser• Less eutrophication?• Diversified farm• Gate fee

• Decreased fuel costs• Security of supply• Locally sourced fuel

• Engineer• Plumber• Builder• Operator• Maintenance• Architect

Biomass boiler Tourist accommodation

2.3.4. Transitioning the problem of waste into an income generating resource

A significant problem for councils is how to deliver the services required within the councils budgetary constraints. One of the more difficult problems regards treatment and disposal of waste, and in particular wastewater. Some CDPs acknowledge that their wastewater infrastructure is not keeping pace with what is required. The EU driven waste hierarchy that all CDPs adhere to is also one step towards a potential ban on landfill. This requires that local authorities find ways to derive energy from waste that cannot be prevented; reused or recycled.

Bioenergy can be an important component in alleviating these issues.


Bioenergy

Bioremediation of wastewater and industrial sludges has been demonstrated using SRC Willow in Ireland. It is particularly good at extracting nutrient and non-nutrient elements from such pollutants due to a combination of large water demand; fine shallow root system; early, large leaf area and vigorous growth19. The application of these wastewaters can result in faster growth rates, improving yields and hence also the economics of production. Unfortunately, in the case of sewage sludges the EPA still requires a certificate of registration permit for spreading onto energy crops. Any action that the councils can take to minimise the cost and time burden of obtaining these permits would be greatly advantageous to the industry (particularly such actions as, where energy crops are concerned, having a reduced permit fee; substantially decreasing the application form; and/or ensuring that where contiguous fields (or nearly adjacent fields) are involved only one application and fee is required to cover all fields).

Reed Canary Grass, which is under investigation for its potential as an energy crop in one strand of the RASLRES programme, has also been found to be very effective as a component of wastewater treatment20. As such it offers several benefits – a cheap alternative to alternative chemical-mechanical treatment systems; the potential to partially replace lost wetlands and thereby assist with delivering on biodiversity requirements; and also the potential if managed well to be a source of energy that could be used within local authority buildings, displacing expensive fossil fuels and contributing to climate change and renewable energy targets. Some varieties can also be used as animal feed.

There are a large number of options21 for obtaining bioenergy from municipal waste and diverting it from landfill. Brown bin collections, which are common in the Western Region, and the recent requirements for catering food waste to be segregated from non-food waste together create a large stream of biomass with relatively low contamination levels. This is ideal for feeding an anaerobic digestion facility to both create biogas that can be used for a number of applications (CHP; heating; transport; electricity) and high value compost. Already the waste management company Panda has invested in such a facility in Ireland. Another option with a ready-made large scale example in Ireland is a waste-to-energy facility. The Indaver plant in County Meath is an 18MW facility, with roughly 50% of the energy produced regarded as bioenergy. There are several other options for generating bioenergy from biodegradable municipal solid waste; wastewater and industrial sludges; at least one of which is a locally adapted technology already operating at a small scale in Ireland22.

19 Caslin, B., Finnan, J. and McCracken, A., 2010. Short Rotation Coppice Willow Best Practice Guidelines. Carlow: Teagasc.20 Sheaffer, C.C., et. al., 2008. Reed Canary grass Forage Yield and Nutrient Uptake on a Year-round Wastewater Application Site. Journal of

Agronomy and Crop Science, 194(6), pp465-469.21 This page (http://www.envirocentre.ie/Content.aspx?ID=f1795259-6760-49ac-99ef-853ed1c974d6&PID=dd9ec456-47e2-4521-9e86-

69b60b78e8f0) provides an excellent summary of commercially available treatment options for waste that deliver bioenergy and significant landfill diversion.

22 http://www.een-ireland.ie/userfiles/Jack%20O’Connor%20270910%20Waste%20to%20Resource%20EI.pdf

The Indaver Waste-to-Energy facility can be considered an example of best practice in stakeholder management – an initially vocally opposed community is now heavily supportive of a facility that offers vastly reduced landfill requirements; environmental safety; significant local employment and a substantial local community fund jointly managed by Indaver and local community representatives.


Bioenergy

County and City Councils operate within a complex European and Irish policy and legislative framework. It is not possible within the constraints of this report to go through all of these aspects; however those directly relevant to renewable energy and some others that are important are briefly touched upon here, together with some quick analysis and links to further information.

3.1 European energy policy and regulationAn excellent summary of the current European legislative framework with regard to climate and energy can be found on the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) website23. The main element of legislation regarding renewable energy is the 2009 RES Directive.

3.1.1 RES Directive

The so-called RES (Renewable Energy Source) Directive24 was adopted by the European Parliament in 2009. It enshrines a target for Europe to achieve 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Ireland was set a country specific target of 16% energy from renewable sources by 2020, from a base of only 3.1% in 2005.

Specific mention is made in the directive regarding local authorities’ administrative procedures with respect to renewable energy25. These essentially require that local authorities streamline their administrative approval procedures, with transparent timetables and taking into consideration the environmental benefits of such installations particularly vis-à-vis non-renewable energy installations. They must also provide comprehensive information on authorisation, certification, licensing and available assistance for renewable energy installations.

23 http://www.erec.org/policy.html24 DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of

energy from renewable sources. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:140:0016:0062:en:PDF25 This is given in Section 41:

The lack of transparent rules and coordination between the different authorisation bodies has been shown to hinder the deployment of energy from renewable sources. Therefore the specific structure of the renewable energy sector should be taken into account when national, regional and local authorities review their administrative procedures for giving permission to construct and operate plants and associated transmission and distribution network infrastructures for the production of electricity, heating and cooling or transport fuels from renewable energy sources. Administrative approval procedures should be streamlined with transparent timetables for installations using energy from renewable sources. Planning rules and guidelines should be adapted to take into consideration cost-effective and environmentally beneficial renewable heating and cooling and electricity equipment. Sections 40, 42, 43 and 44 are also relevant for local authority planning and decision making. Article 13 is where these statements are legislated.

3EU, UK & Government policy


The RES Directive includes specific information regarding biofuels; transport and heat. In accounting for the share of renewable energy, all energy used for electricity, heating and cooling, and transport must be considered. A minimum target of 10% renewable energy in transport final demand by 2020 is set for all Member States, although in accounting for this biofuels derived from waste are worth 2.5 times (i.e. if 4% of transport energy was obtained from biofuels produced from waste this would meet the criteria).

A key part of the Directive is that biofuels must be sustainable. Article 17 sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) relative to diesel or petrol of 35% initially, 50% from the start of 2017 and 60% from the start of 2018. Very few crop derived biofuels can meet these sustainability criteria – however second generation biofuels derived from ligno-cellulosic material (e.g. wood) and biofuels (including biogas) derived from waste are mostly able to meet these criteria.

The directive includes provision for certification of installers. Certification schemes are required by 31st December 2012 for, amongst other technologies, small-scale biomass boilers (Article 14(3) and Annex IV). Training programmes must be provided for qualified tradespeople such as plumbers.

3.1.2 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) (Proposed)

The draft energy efficiency directive26 is due to be implemented by the middle of 2012. It is currently being debated and some elements are likely to be removed before it is issued. Some of the proposals include:

g New (large) facilities producing waste heat must find a useful outlet for that waste heat, preferably some form of District Heating.

g Micro-CHP (<50 kWe) must be facilitated.

g Spatial planning regulations must be in line with national heating and cooling plans.

g Each country must produce a detailed heat map.

This last point is particularly interesting as it will both put an obligation on local authorities to source and provide information, but also provide the opportunity to identify areas of high heat load to focus district heating viability studies.

3.1.3 Strategic energy technology (SET) Plan

The SET plan arose from a communication to the European Parliament in 2009 outlining what would be required to develop low carbon technologies and make them competitive. The section on sustainable bioenergy suggests that an investment of €9bn would result in sufficient bioenergy to supply 14% of European requirements with job creation of over 200,000. A version of the SET plan27 has been implemented in Europe, and investment in bioenergy technology development will continue to improve the technology and decrease the associated costs.

3.1.4 Public procurement

The European Union has certain rules regarding public procurement related to energy28. Although the current regulations are unlikely to impact directly on the Western Region city and county councils, they are currently being reviewed, and, importantly, allow recourse to social and environmental criteria for the selection of economic operators. This recourse is

26 Proposal for a directive of the European parliament and of the council on energy efficiency COM(2011) 370 final (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0370:FIN:EN:PDF)

27 http://ec.europa.eu/energy/technology/set_plan/set_plan_en.htm28 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:134:0001:0113:EN:PDF

European Union…rules regarding public procurement related to

energy…allow recourse to social and environmental criteria for the selection

of economic operators


one that could be used by the city and county councils to ensure that the best overall result for the county or city, not just the best cost result for the particular facility tendering is achieved. This more holistic approach is likely to assist the competitiveness of bioenergy solutions over non-renewable solutions for energy provision.

3.1.5 Green public procurement29

The European Union has set specific targets for Green Public Procurement (GPP) in its communication Public procurement for a better environment. The EU Europe 2020 strategy identified GPP as a key means to sustainable growth, and includes it within the policy on Sustainable Consumption and Production. Local authorities can influence the development of sustainable energy, and of bioenergy, through implementation of GPP that recognizes environmental and social benefits. It can be utilized to realize specific bioenergy targets – such as may be set either by the region cooperatively or by county’s independently. Implementation of lifecycle costing within public procurement is likely to lead to a combination of green outcomes and cost savings. To implement GPP successfully requires interdepartmental cooperation and high level support within the council.

3.1.6 Biomass action plan

Although largely subsumed into subsequent publications such as the RES Directive, this communication from 200530 includes some significant statements. These include that in 2005 biomass accounted for around half of all renewable energy in the EU, and that the target was to increase the amount of biomass used by ~220% by 2010. It noted that technology allowed simple and cheap provision of heating directly from biomass; that biomass has a key role to play in transport; and that forestry and waste are underutilised for energy production. These all remain true in the Western Region.

3.1.7 Environmental policies

A number of EU environmental policies impact on bioenergy development – either positively or negatively. Some of these include:

g The Kyoto protocol (worldwide): This set the basis worldwide for reducing carbon emissions and its initial form is due to complete in 2012 with Ireland set to meet its target.

g Climate change policy: The EU has a very large and diverse set of policies31 regarding climate change. In essence the approach is to attempt to limit global warming to not more than 2°C, and renewable energy has a large part to play in this. A key tool in delivering the climate change strategy is the Emissions Trading Scheme, which was extended by the 2009 Directive32 and includes the largest emitters. As the ETS expands and becomes deregulated, alternative energy forms will become more attractive.

g Sustainable development: a key ambition for the European Union, the strategy was last updated in 200533. It seeks to ensure that economic, social and environmental developments are considered equally, and with consideration for future generations. This holistic approach, if fully adopted, is beneficial to bioenergy development.

29 European Commission, 2011. Buying Green! Green public procurement in Europe. A summary. Available on the Green Public procurement website, http:// ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp

30 European Commission, 2005. Communication from the Commission: Biomass Action Plan. Available at http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2005:0628:FIN:EN:PDF

31 http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/environment/tackling_climate_change/index_en.htm32 Council Directive 2009/29/EC of 23 April 2009 so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme of the

Community.33 European Commission 2005. Communication from the commission to the council and the European parliament. On the review of the

Sustainable Development Strategy. A platform for action.


EU, UK & Government policy

g Waste: The 2008 Waste directive34 set out the waste hierarchy for EU nations to implement, to minimise the negative impacts of waste. This hierarchy is already acknowledged within the CDPs, however more attention could be paid to the second last tier – energy recovery. The use of sewage sludge for agriculture is regulated separately35,and is allowed provided these regulations are met.

g Air quality: The 2008 air quality directive36 sets limits on air pollutants. This will mostly assist bioenergy, particular in transport, as modern, efficient bioenergy technologies produce very little air pollution.

g Water: The Water Framework Directive37 sets out a framework for water protection and management. Although unlikely to impact on development of bioenergy conversion facilities, it might restrict development of bioenergy supply.

g Biodiversity: The substantial set of policies38 surrounding biodiversity can impact the potential supply of biomass. Depending on the type of biomass being grown and what preceded it, biomass supply can contribute to improved biodiversity (planting forests on degraded land; artificial wetlands to treat wastewater). However the necessity to keep highly biodiverse land in its current state precludes planting of biomass for energy purposes.

g Soils: Although the proposed soils directive has been consistently blocked since 2006, there is still a framework in place to protect soil, and the nitrates directive39 restricts the use of manure on farms, making it available for activities such as anaerobic digestion (AD), whilst potentially limiting the use of the digestate in the immediate vicinity of an AD unit.

3.1.8 Agricultural policies

The main policy of impact to bioenergy is the Common Agricultural Policy. The current edition included the facility to support development of energy crops which was promoted in Ireland and led to the planting of over 3000 hectares of Miscanthus and over 500 hectares of SRC Willow. CAP is up for renewal in 2013, and the initial indications suggest that although there may be no direct additional support for biomass production for energy, there will be changes that could benefit such production. One of these proposed changes concerns having to diversify farm production to a minimum of three different farming types, with minimum percentages of land devoted to each one. This diversification might benefit bioenergy as it may be seen as an easy option for a second or third farming activity, particularly if a production contract that amounts to land rental is taken out.

Other important agricultural policies and regulation for bioenergy include:

g Animal by-products regulation40: restricts the movement and use of animal by-products.

g Community strategic guidelines for rural development: included in this is diversifying the rural economy and building local employment – both of which can be assisted with bioenergy.

3.1.9 Summary

Bioenergy is becoming embedded into many of the major European Union activities and directives, either directly or indirectly. There is a strong belief at European level that bioenergy will have to play a very important role, both in meeting 2020 renewable energy and climate change targets, but also in ensuring

34 Council Directive 2008/98/EC of 19 November 2008 on waste.35 Council Directive 86/278/EEC of 12 June 1986 on the protection of the environment, and in particular of the soil, when sewage sludge is used in

agriculture.36 Council Directive 2008/50/EC of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe.37 Council Directive 2000/60/EC of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy.38 http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/environment/nature_and_biodiversity/index_en.htm39 Council Directive 91/676/EEC of 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural

sources.40 REGULATION (EC) No 1069/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL (http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/

LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:300:0001:0033:EN:PDF)



Aura Letterkenny Leisure Centre

Boiler House

Woodchip Boilers

that 2050 targets can also be met. Europe intends that by 2020 bioenergy will provide 14% of all European energy needs, and 61% of European renewable energy supply. Bioenergy is seen as being able to address many economic, social and environmental issues, and in future is likely to attract even greater attention. The European Union objectives, specific targets and directives, incorporating bioenergy, will be enacted through the national parliament and thence impact increasingly at a county level and require addressing through local action. By pre-empting these actions councils can both take the lead within Ireland and ensure they can meet the requirements in a considered and managed way, minimising national government interference and ensuring the best possible local outcome.

3.2 UK PolicyPolicy in the UK and Northern Ireland in particular are likely to impact bioenergy development in the Western Region. Currently the UK and Northern Ireland are both implementing renewable heat incentives4 1 42. These incentives are likely to lead to a large increase in demand for biomass, at significantly higher prices, than is currently the case. These incentives represent the impact of solid policy frameworks driving growth. This rapidity of growth in the renewables sector in the UK has been driven by such policy actions, which have provided the additional impetus to ensure delivery of renewable energy projects. County councils can also help with delivering more renewable energy projects through clarity in the planning process, providing confidence in applicant assessment timeframes, and through providing leadership in the field. As we have also seen from the late reduction in tariffs for solar power and the resultant legal challenge, uncertainty is the greatest obstacle to commercial growth.

In March 2011, AEA completed a study on the expected biomass demand in the UK and the likely biomass feedstock available to meet this demand, out to 2030. They found that although there would theoretically be sufficient biomass to meet rapidly increased demand in the UK in 2020, it is more likely that they will be importing substantial amounts of biomass. In an analysis of the international market, they concluded that the EU would be a net importer of biomass, and hence the UK is likely to be looking to import from the USA and China. It also predicted that up to 85% of the worldwide traded biomass in 2030 will be from energy crops, which are currently planted at very low levels worldwide. This flags a fantastic opportunity for the Western Region to not only develop indigenous biomass resources, but to use the knowledge and expertise gained and export this across the world. It is also an opportunity to develop an additional foreign income stream for the region through the export of energy crops to the UK. Such export is likely to occur at fairly stable prices over a long period of time. The price increases suggested in the report are not necessarily large, hence local demand should still be able to find supply if the industry has been developed.

Northern Ireland is separately introducing its own renewable heat incentive. Again, it is likely to attract export of biomass should it be available as Northern Ireland has very low levels of woody biomass in particular. There is potential for Northern Ireland to import biomass from other countries, however it should be seen as an opportunity to set up an export business for the Western Region, supplying woody energy crops across the border. The AECOM-Poyry report on renewable heat options developed for Northern Ireland also suggested that air-source heat pumps might be one of the cheapest renewable heat options available and hence it is likely that they will form a significant portion of the installed renewable heating capacity in the next few years, ensuring that an energy crop industry in the Western Region should be able to supply both the domestic and Northern Ireland markets.

The opportunity exists to develop a significant Irish bioenergy industry through building on the UK schemes. These schemes can provide an impetus through both development of the supply side in Ireland to meet their demand, and also through increasing development of investor confidence in the mature bioenergy technology.

41 Information on the UK RHI can be found on the DECC website at: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/meeting_energy/renewable_ener/incentive/incentive.aspx

42 Information on the NI RHI, for which the consultation period has closed, can be found on the DETINI website at: http://www.detini.gov.uk/the_development_of_the_northern_ireland_renewable_heat_incentive.pdf



Already Ireland is providing the skill sets necessary to develop industrial scale bioenergy facilities through Irish companies winning contracts in the UK. As the cost of transport can be a significant factor in the price of bioenergy feedstock, diverting export oriented production for indigenous facilities, or simply increasing bioenergy feedstock production in Ireland to meet any such increased demand should be possible.

3.3 National policy

3.3.1 County Development Plans

The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government published Development Plans: Guidelines for Planning Authorities43 in 2006. These set out the requirements to be adhered to including content areas when developing County Development Plans, and builds on the Planning and Development Act 2000.

3.3.2 National Renewable Energy Action Plan

In July 2010 Ireland submitted a National Renewable Energy Action Plan44 to Europe as part of its obligation under the RES Directive. This plan outlined how Ireland was going to achieve its 2020 carbon emissions reduction, and for bioenergy didn’t contain any new measures to those already in place or underway. Despite this, bioenergy is still expected to deliver nearly as much renewable energy nationally in 2020 as wind.

3.3.3 Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT)

REFIT45 rewards production of electricity from specified and contracted renewable energy sources for each unit of electricity exported to the grid. A top-up payment is made, the rate varying depending on the technology used. The first instalment is closed for new applicants. Details for REFIT 2 that supports, amongst others, landfill gas ≤ 5MW are being drafted by the government. REFIT 3 has been passed by the EU and draft details have been published. . REFIT 3 has been passed by the EU and awaits government approval. It will support up to 310MW of biomass projects including AD; non-AD biomass CHP; and biomass combustion and cofiring.

3.3.4 Government targets – the 2007 Energy White Paper

In 2007 the Irish government published a set of renewable energy targets46 for 2020. These targets were intended to ensure that Ireland would source 16% of its energy requirement from renewable sources by 2020. The targets are:

g Electricity 33% (upgraded to 40% in 2008)

g Heat 12%

g Biofuels 10%

The ambition was to take major steps towards a sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply. These targets have major implications for local authorities in Ireland and their planning for renewable energy development, as the following graphs show.

43 Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, 2007. Development Plans: Guidelines for Planning Authorities [pdf] Available at: http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/Planning/FileDownLoad,14468,en.pdf

44 Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, 2010. National Renewable Energy Action Plan. Ireland. [pdf] Available at http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/03DBA6CF-AD04-4ED3-B443-B9F63DF7FC07/0/IrelandNREAPv11Oct2010.pdf

45 http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Energy/Sustainable+and+Renewable+Energy+Division/REFIT.htm46 Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, 2007. Delivering a Sustainable Energy Future for Ireland. [pdf] Available at

http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/54C78A1E-4E96-4E28-A77A-3226220DF2FC/30374/EnergyWhitePaper12March2007.pdf



4500

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Target RE Fossil Fuel

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Figure 3 Ireland’s renewable energy targets as outlined in the 2007 Energy White paper and 2008 budget. Although the percentage targets for heat and transport are much smaller than for electricity, their combined physical value is nearly the same as the electricity target due to the larger share of heat and transport energy use within Ireland compared to electricity.

1000

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0Biomass Wind Hydro Ocean Solar Geothermal

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Figure 4 Translating the national renewable energy targets into required energy from each renewable energy type. Wind will be required to provide the biggest share of renewable energy by 2020, however the requirement from biomass is very nearly the same. Numbers sourced and adapted from the SEAI publication, Energy Forecasts for Ireland to 2020, 2010 Report.

These graphs demonstrate that local authorities will need to consider actions to promote bioenergy if the national targets are to be met. The focus thus far has largely been on wind, however wind will be just one part of a renewable energy portfolio in which bioenergy plays an almost equal part. Promotion of bioenergy will need to occur across all three energy sectors, but principally in the heat sector (as the electricity component is relatively small, and the transport element will mostly be delivered by the BOS – see below). The Western Region will also need to provide a disproportionate share of the renewable heat target as renewable heat is most cost competitive in areas off the gas network – which most of the Western Region is.

The Western Region will need to provide a disproportionate share of the renewable heat target as renewable heat is most cost competitive in areas off the gas network – which most of the Western Region is.



3.3.5 National climate change strategy 2007 – 2012

This document47 outlines measures to achieve a national reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to ensure Ireland’s obligations under Kyoto are met. Within the document are a number of references to bioenergy including:

g Biofuels obligation of 5.75%

g Expansion of forestry and energy crops

g Support for farmers to become involved with bioenergy

g Using waste biomass for energy production (including waste-to-energy facilities)

g Biomass heating in schools

All of these measures are very supportive of bioenergy.

3.3.6 Biofuels obligation scheme (BOS)

BOS48 was introduced in 2010 and specifies that a percentage of all transport fuels sold in Ireland must be biofuels, with some exclusions. The initial percentage was set at 4% by volume.

3.3.7 National development plan 2007 – 2013 (NDP)

Contained within the NDP is a commitment of over €8bn for energy. The bulk of this funding is for existing semi-state energy supply companies for upgrading infrastructure and other measures, however €276m is directly allocated for sustainable energy measures. Much of this now appears to be within the Better Energy Homes and Better Energy Workplaces programmes within SEAI with other programmes having been significantly curtailed over the past 12 – 18 months.

3.3.8 Carbon tax

Although not strictly a policy or regulation, the carbon tax still impacts on the renewable energy environment. In the 2012 budget it was increased from the existing €15/tonne to €20/tonne for petrol and diesel (immediately) and for non-solid home heating fuels (from May 2012). It is set to rise to €30/tonne in 2014. As it applies to heating oil, it can be expected to improve the economics of biomass heating installations in the Western Region areas off the gas network.

3.3.9 What’s missing?

Heat. There is currently a policy vacuum with regard to renewable heat in Ireland and how the 12% renewable energy in heat is going to be achieved. This vacuum makes it imperative that there is some clarity for potential investors, such as with planning, zoning and permitting. Some of the options for a national heat policy are considered here:

g Reallocating the renewable heat target amongst transport and electricity. This is highly unlikely. The heat market is nearly twice as large as the electricity market, hence would require increasing the renewable electricity target to roughly 60%, a massive increase. The government is also already struggling to meet 10% renewable energy in the transport sector, and so it would be very difficult to increase this target.

g Adopting the UK renewable heat incentive. Although this has attractions and with the right pricing level could almost be guaranteed to deliver the target, it is just too expensive. It may be that a reduced version

47 Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, 2007. Ireland. National Climate Change Strategy 2007 – 2012. [pdf] Available at http://www.environ.ie/en/Environment/Atmosphere/ClimateChange/NationalClimateChangeStrategy/PublicationsDocuments/FileDownLoad,1861,en.pdf

48 Energy (Biofuel Obligation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2010



that doesn’t include the domestic sector may be considered. This could possibly be introduced at lower rates than the UK as the economics for converting to biomass heating systems for commercial premises are already attractive in many cases. Therefore a relatively low incentive might be able to deliver large results for low costs, while helping to slow or stop export of Irish biomass to UK facilities.

g An obligation scheme. How would this work in practice? The heat market is so dispersed, with nearly every building having its own conversion unit, and a number of fuel options, many sold by small businesses. The administrative nightmare means this option can’t realistically be considered.

g Increasing carbon tax. While this is attractive in that it doesn’t cost the government anything and is likely to bring in substantially more income, it also has a number of downsides. It is a blunt instrument; hence to achieve the renewable heat target may require a very large tax increase. It also impacts across the economy – most goods are transported by road and an increased carbon tax will increase petrol and diesel prices, therefore increasing the cost of goods for businesses and individuals. An increased carbon tax will result in increased electricity prices when many businesses and households are already struggling to keep costs under control. For these reasons, this option is also unlikely.

g Direct subsidisation of capital costs for renewable heating facilities. This has already been tried with the Greener Homes Scheme and Reheat. Although many installations were funded, the installed capacity is still relatively small compared to what is required, and these programs have already been discontinued and hence are unlikely to be revived.

g Public sector obligation. This appears to be one method that might work, to achieve at least some of the required heat target. It could only apply to new buildings (which are likely to be few in the next few years) and those that are renewing their heating systems (also likely to be relatively slow turnover). In practice this, too, has been tried before and for a number of reasons was unsuccessful.

The need for a renewable heat policy has been acknowledged for at least the last two years without any appearing, and without any strong indication that one is imminent. It can be hoped that a heat policy will be implemented in the near future; however the expectation is that it won’t appear until towards the end of 2012 at the earliest.

To meet national heat targets will require local action. As such, expect that delivery of the heat target will rely heavily on county strategies and action plans on energy and climate change.



The impression from reading the county development plans is that the ultimate goal for the local authorities is to deliver an improved and sustainable quality of life for their residents. They have a number of areas that they operate in to deliver this enhanced quality of life, and also a number of regulations that they must abide by. Overall, the impression is that the areas of operation and concern are common between councils, but that the emphasis and interpretation can vary.Bioenergy can make a major contribution to achieving the visions outlined in the County Development Plans. To do so rapidly will require the counties and cities in the region to adopt a holistic view of bioenergy, and in doing so value not just the direct cost implications, but the full economic, social and environmental implications that arise from bioenergy activities across the full spectrum as outlined in the figure below:

Sustainablequality of

life

Energy

Transport

Economicgrowth &Tourism

Wastemanagement

Housing& Socialinclusion

Environment

Ruralregeneration

BIOENERGY

BIOEN

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Y B

IOEN

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B IOENERGY

Figure 5 Overview of how bioenergy can contribute to multiple elements of the CDPs, which in turn are focussed on sustainably improving the quality of life in their region. The arrows indicate the direction of impact - e.g. bioenergy can impact on rural regeneration; bioenergy can impact on the environment section, but is also impacted by elements in the environment section.

4CDPs and a holistic view of bioenergy – the high priority areas


The councils of the Western Region have already taken a number of positive measures and made a number of very positive statements in the County Development Plans (as will be seen in the tables below). These statements, however, now need to be backed up with concrete actions to deliver specific targets – targets set not at the minimum level of ambition set by national policy, but set significantly higher and according to the resources available. Setting such ambition is more likely to drive inwards foreign investment; to develop an export oriented industry (skills and materials); develop the scale to maximize benefits, particularly to rural areas; and establish the Western Region of Ireland firmly as the leading area for sustainable energy and bioenergy on the island of Ireland.

The following section is formatted as follows:

1. The main CDP category as the main heading, and CDP sub-category as a sub-heading.

2. A brief summary paragraph referring to the councils role or concerns for the given category, and how bioenergy relates to these (this paragraph is not repeated in Chapter 5 where categories are repeated)

Bioenergy area: Which part of the bioenergy chain is affected

CDP addresses: What is the CDP trying to achieve, or typical statement

Role/Impact on bioenergy:For this CDP section, what is the likely impact on bioenergy development, or what role can bioenergy play?

Current best practice in CDPs:Relevant quotes taken directly out of the CDPs demonstrating how this is currently best approached.

Possible measures: How to gain the benefits bioenergy offers.

Chapters 4 & 5 have identified existing best practice within the Western Region councils concerning bioenergy, and suggested possible enhancements. This analysis can be built on by the RASLRES/WDC to further guide the policy development process of Councils. For instance there is scope to develop an online benchmarking support tool to assist county councils in identifying areas for policy development. Best practice needs to relate back to vision and targets for bioenergy. By doing so, including best practice in the CDPs can drive further change and deliver on the councils leadership function.

4.1 Built environmentThe councils in the Western Region are the main organisations impacting on the built environment through a combination of planning and permitting. These processes are also critical to bioenergy market development and investor confidence. An analysis by the European Bioenergy Best Practice Programme, BAPDriver, showed that bioenergy development timeframes and costs can be significantly reduced by creating confidence in the permitting process – through publishing clear criteria and also publishing and abiding by set timetables for permitting decision making. Provision of standards also assists in creating confidence in the marketplace and reducing costs through standardization – this is an area that particularly needs addressing in the Western Region in respect to heat. The use of planning can also drive market development by requiring consideration of renewable energy for all new or renewal projects, particularly those operated by councils who can therefore take the lead.


CDPs and a holistic view of bioenergy – the high priority areas

4.1.1 Land use zonings

Bioenergy area: Fuel quality and standards

CDP addresses:Not yet included <prerequisite for requiring installation of district heating compatible infrastructure; take national lead; prepare for forthcoming energy efficiency directive>

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Provide framework to enable rapid deployment of distributed heat systems.

Current best practice in CDPs: N/A

Possible measures:Standards for heat - work with IEI to develop common framework so systems can be integrated in future - e.g. pipe sizes, out and return temperatures, rules governing heat traversing boundaries, etc.

4.1.2 Regeneration and Renewal

Bioenergy area: Market development and social acceptance

CDP addresses: Urban renewal and social housing

Role/Impact on bioenergy:These are prime targets for district heating which can be most cost effectively (in most cases) supplied by bioenergy

Current best practice in CDPs:

Use renewable energy in social housing where appropriate (Mayo)Actively encourage the integration of micro renewable energy sources into the design and construction of single and multiple housing developments throughout the County. (Galway County)

Possible measures:Require all urban renewal and social housing developments to consider biomass district heating and install infrastructure to allow connection to a district heating network.

4.2 Employment, Economy and EnterpriseWestern Region councils are all attempting to address issues around rural regeneration, employment creation and encouraging alternative enterprises. Through a combination of direct action, active promotion and awareness raising regarding bioenergy the councils can address all three issues. Direct action to install bioenergy conversion facilities will encourage development of alternative local rural enterprises developing, sourcing, refining and delivering the biomass feedstock. This will generate substantial local income that is recirculated in the rural area having additional positive employment, rural community and wealth creation impacts. There is also the potential to generate very high added value industries through biorefining, an area being investigated by the well-funded Bioenergy and Biorefining Competence Centre (BBCC) based in Limerick. Councils in the region could combine to identify likely areas for developing a biorefining centre and set an ambition to develop such a centre to provide chemicals in support of the large pharmaceutical industry in Ireland; for other indigenous industries; and for export; and then work with the BBCC to realize this ambition.



4.2.1 Agricultural development

Bioenergy area: Market development & social acceptance

CDP addresses: Develop alternative farm enterprises

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Bioenergy can provide many options for alternative farm and rural enterprise


RCC will facilitate and encourage the development of alternative farm enterprises and farm diversification proposals that support the development of alternative or additional rural enterprises which supplement farm incomes and regenerate the rural economy. (Roscommon)

Possible measures:Specifically state within CDP that bioenergy is considered a viable, and sustainable option, and that additional measures will be taken by the council to develop the market for biomass to facilitate such alternative farm enterprise.

4.2.2 Energy

Bioenergy area: Other (benefits)

CDP addresses: Economic and employment development by developing renewable energy supply

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Bioenergy provides greatest local employment and new business impact of all renewable energies, hence should boosted by this provided this is known within the council and the Western Region


To contribute to the economic development and enhanced employment opportunities in the County By facilitating the development of a self-sustaining, secure, reliable and efficient renewable energy supply and storage for the County. (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Promote benefits of bioenergy both internally in the council and externally in the wider business and domestic communities.

g Set targets for bioenergy deployment. g Acknowledge within CDP text positive impact on employment bioenergy can have.

4.2.3 Rural Enterprise

Bioenergy area: Market development & social acceptance

CDP addresses: Encourage new small-scale rural enterprise

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Bioenergy matches this ambition very well – dominated by many small scale enterprises in rural areas.


To support the diversification of job creation and promote small-scale start up enterprises spread in a balanced spatial form across the County whether in the form of public/private sector investment or by means of community led developments. (Donegal)

Possible measures:

g Specifically mention bioenergy as one of the key industries that will be particularly supported.

g Provide leadership with installation of conversion facilities in authority buildings

g Provide relevant training through partnerships g Promote bioenergy through publications, presentations, meetings and other local authority activities.



4.3 EnergyCouncils play a number of roles with respect to energy – influencing through planning and zoning; facilitating electricity grid developments; leading through their energy purchase decisions; and setting the agenda through renewable energy plans and communication. Of these, taking leadership through preferentially sourcing bioenergy facilities for their own use, in heat, transport and electricity, is likely to have the biggest impact on bioenergy development. The market confidence created by concrete actions following up positive intent statements and clear targets regarding bioenergy in renewable energy (or perhaps even bioenergy) action plans will also be important. The provision of detailed information regarding energy consumption can significantly reduce lead-in times and development costs for potential investors and provide a more positive environment for foreign direct investment. Adopting the European and national model ambition for distributed energy generation is also likely to favour bioenergy development.

4.3.1 Bioenergy

Bioenergy area: All areas

CDP addresses: Support and encourage the bioenergy sector

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Above statement is very broad, very positive, however needs to be backed by action to provide results.


It is the policy of the Council to support and promote the development of energy from Biomass: g Collection and use of gas from landfill sites where viable g Development of energy from wood where viable in the County g Development of energy crops where viable in the County g Development of waste energy from sewage as a possible fertilizer for energy crops. (Mayo)

Possible measures:Add specific actions to be undertaken/targets to be met to deliver on the statement. (refer to other tables in this section for examples)

Bioenergy area: Conversion

CDP addresses: Facilitate waste-to-energy and CHP schemes

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Positive message that opens door for applications for these technologies.

Current best practice in CDPs:To facilitate the development of Waste to Energy/ Combined Heat and Power schemes at appropriate locations throughout the County, subject to the requirements of the Habitats Directive. (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Identify and publish suitable waste streams, their volumes, trends and locations in the Western Region.

g Work with EirGrid to ensure suitable connections are available near large heat loads to facilitate CHP.


4.3.2. Electricity network


CDP addresses: Improve and expand infrastructure

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Can help with promoting bioenergy development through decreased time and costs for large scale operations, and through enabling access for small scale operations.

Current best practice in CDPs:To facilitate improvements in energy infrastructure and encourage the expansion of the infrastructure within the County; (Clare)

Possible measures:

Work with Eirgrid on facilitating sufficient connection points for large, small and micro-scale generators throughout the Western Region, focussing particularly on identified areas of high heat demand to facilitate CHP development.

4.3.3 Heat energy


CDP addresses: Facilitate district heating in new and retrofit buildings

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Bioenergy best option for district heating, so very positive

Current best practice in CDPs:To facilitate district heating systems in new developments and retrofitting of existing buildings throughout the County (Clare)

Possible measures: g Develop standard heat regulations with IEI for the Western Region g See previous notes under Built Environment.

4.3.4 Low carbon economy


CDP addresses: Promote county as low carbon to attract inwards investment.

Role/Impact on bioenergy:To be truly low carbon means that heat and transport must be addressed – and in the short to medium term at least this means embracing bioenergy.


To promote County Clare as a low carbon County by 2017 as a means of attracting inward investment to the County and the Mid-West region;b To facilitate the development of energy sources which will achieve low carbon outputs. (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Facilitate bioenergy development through provision of supply and demand information

g Lead bioenergy development g Invest in R&D to reduce costs and maximise sustainable resource development and use.

g Address behavioural issues and influence decision making in favour of bioenergy.




CDP addresses: Deliver on the National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS)

Role/Impact on bioenergy:The NCCS 2007 – 2012 embraces the bioenergy action plan and the 2007 Energy White Paper which both promote development of bioenergy, as well as explicitly setting aside funding for development of energy crops.


It is the policy of the Council to support the National Climate Change Strategy 2000 and reduced energy consumption by encouraging energy efficiency, low energy design and integration of renewable energy techniques into new and existing developments, including the Council’s own operations. (Mayo)

Possible measures: g Work with rural communities to develop acceptance of energy crops and forestry as genuine farming operations.

g Implement the Bioenergy Action Plan

4.3.5 Renewable energy49


CDP addresses: Favourably consider renewable energy

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Suggests that door is open for bioenergy proposals


It is the policy of the Council to encourage the production of energy from renewable sources, in particular from biomass, forestry, wind, solar power, tidal, hydro, wave and geothermal. (Mayo)Give favourable consideration to small scale renewable energy schemes, such as wind, hydro and biomass, of less than 5MW where grid connection is possible without large scale infrastructural investment in line with national guidelines for sustainable development. (Galway County)

Possible measures:

The above statements are good, but broad. Some specificity would boost market confidence - e.g. we will particularly seek to facilitate commercial and industrial scale biomass facilities, considering such applications holistically including the social, environmental and wider economic benefits such facilities can bring, particularly in comparison to non-renewable energy alternatives.


CDP addresses: All proposals in full compliance with SEA, Habitats Directive

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Uncertainty, delays.

Current best practice in CDPs:To ensure that all proposals for renewable energy and ancillary facilities in the County are in full compliance with the requirements of the SEA and Habitats Directives. (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Provide clarity and transparency by publishing the criteria used to assess what is required and when.

g In considering submissions, also consider the positive impact on regional and local development opportunities, export prospects, social cohesion and employment opportunities49

49 DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources.



4.3.6 Vision


CDP addresses: Leader in renewable energy generation

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Bioenergy will have to be a significant part of the renewable energy portfolio to achieve this vision.

Current best practice in CDPs:Target of 50MW of renewable energy electricity capacity to meet the requirements of the EU White Paper on Renewable Energy Directive by 2010 (Mayo)

Possible measures:Break out vision statement into priorities and targets – e.g. the county will maximise use of its available bioenergy resources to exceed national targets for renewable heat and transport of 12% and 10% respectively.


CDP addresses: Develop a renewable energy plan

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Bioenergy will need to form a major part of the plan if renewable energy targets in all areas are to be delivered.

Current best practice in CDPs:Develop and implement a Renewable Energy Plan for County Roscommon over the lifetime of the Plan. (Roscommon; Clare)

Possible measures:

g Set targets g Identify demand points g Identify supply points g Address issues across the whole bioenergy spectrum from resource development to sustainability.

4.4 EnvironmentOne of the Councils primary responsibilities is to maintain and improve the environmental quality for its citizens. This covers all aspects from water quality (dealt with in more detail later); visual impacts; noise and air pollution; biodiversity and habitats; waste disposal and climate change. Bioenergy can make a very positive contribution in pursuing this agenda, particularly through decreasing the climate change impact of energy use; providing additional habitat for increased biodiversity; providing buffer areas to protect sites of high conservation value; and through decreasing traffic-induced air pollution. Councils can contribute to this process through generating certainty through published criteria for assessing permitting requirements; and maps of allowable areas for biomass feedstock development; processing; and conversion. Reducing the climate change impact can be assisted through setting clear bioenergy targets including pathways to achieve them, training planners on how to assess bioenergy planning applications, and ensuring that current best practice with respect to green public procurement is implemented throughout the councils operations. Councils can themselves benefit by incorporating the next to bottom tier of the waste hierarchy – energy recovery – into their waste operations. This will both decrease the amount of waste going to landfill and generate a valuable product from an existing waste material.


4.4.1 Biodiversity

Bioenergy area: Resources

CDP addresses: Protect areas of high biodiversity value

Role/Impact on bioenergy:

g Uncertainty over what can be planted, where. g Potential for broadleaf forestry to be favourably treated g Potential for reed canary grass artificial wetlands for wastewater treatment to be favourably viewed


Promote the conservation of biodiversity outside of designated areas, while allowing for appropriate development, access and recreational activity.Carry out habitat mapping for the county to identify significant local habitats in the county. Mapping of habitats should prioritise: Habitats listed in Annex 2 of the EU Habitats Directive; Species listed in Annex 2 of the EU Habitats Directive; and Species listed in Annex 1 of the Birds Directive.

Possible measures:

g Provide map showing areas completely off-limits; areas where broadleaf forestry is encouraged on biodiversity grounds.

g Publish criteria for assessing if area is of high biodiversity value. g Specifically mention potential positive outcome for soils, biodiversity or both through bioremediation of wastewater on SRC Willow or creating artificial wetlands for wastewater treatment, including carefully managed reed canary grass beds for dual bioenergy role.

4.4.2 Climate Change


CDP addresses: Facilitate a low carbon economy

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Encourages bioenergy development as, along with other renewable energies, it is nearly carbon neutral

Current best practice in CDPs: Table of renewable energy resources available (Sligo)

Possible measures:

g Set targets for bioenergy development in the Western Region/individual counties and cities

g Set targets for bioenergy penetration into council owned and leased properties

g Train relevant council personnel (in procurement; maintenance; planning) in assessing and operating bioenergy installations.

g Implement best practice in green public procurement to consider the holistic benefits when assessing tenders (economic; social and environmental)



Bioenergy area:Market development and social acceptance

CDP addresses:Adopt sustainable planning strategies


Densification provides opportunity for district heating; alternative transport methods (including biogas/bioliquid fuelled bus fleets)


To adopt sustainable planning strategies through integrating land use and transportation and by facilitating mixed use developments as a means of reducing greenhouse emissions. (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Refer to the built environment section.

g Set sector specific carbon reduction targets.

4.4.3 Natura 2000


CDP addresses:If development may impact on a Natura 2000 site, must submit a Habitats Directive Assessment.

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Reduces possible locations. Also creates uncertainty - for bioenergy resource development, under what circumstances will these be required?


It is the Policy of the Council to ensure that all Plans and Projects that have the potential to negatively impact on the integrity of the Natura 2000 network, will be subject to a Habitats Directive Assessment (HDA), in accordance with Article 6 of the Habitats Directive and in accordance with best practice and guidance. (Leitrim)

Possible measures: g Clarify criteria for determining when a HDA is required g Provide maps of off-limits area for forestry; cropping

Biofuels, jobs and investment from wasteGenerating useful products from what was once waste is now big business attracting large amounts of investment. In Florida, US$130m is currently being invested to turn household, vegetative and wood waste into bioethanol for transport and electricity. The investment will result in 380 jobs for the first two years and 50 full time jobs thereafter.

http://www.ineosbio.com/94-Indian_River_BioEnergy_Center.htm



4.4.4 Waste disposal


CDP addresses: EU Waste hierarchy

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Diversion from landfill; provision of energy; provision of income and employment;

Current best practice in CDPs:The ethos of the plan is reflected in the waste hierarchy pyramid of prevention, minimisation, reuse, recycling, energy recovery and disposal. (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Specifically target maximising energy recovery. Make sure it is specifically mentioned within CDP references to approach to solid waste disposal.

g Set an ambition to dispense with the bottom layer and turn all waste into a resource of some sort - and achieve this through permitting and promotion of waste-to-energy facilities (of all commercially and environmentally viable types).

Example 3: Anaerobic DigestionMany forms of waste can be converted using Anaerobic Digestion (AD) into biogas and a valuable fertilizer. This example shows catering waste (which now has to be collected separately); brown bin collection (common in the Western Region) and wastewater being treated in a large AD facility. The biogas produced is then used to power the local bus fleet and the digestate used to fertilize agricultural crops. In doing so, the costs of treating the waste are reduced, the environmental costs associated with using fossil fuels for transport are decreased, savings are made on transport fuel; imported fertilizer is displaced, and local employment is also increased. Councils taking the lead on such projects demonstrates leadership and decreases the risks associated with fossil fuel energy price shocks.

Brown bin WastewaterCatering waste

DigestateBiogas

• Less air pollution• Fuel savings• Less waste disposal• Less WW treatment

• Local employment• Energy security• Providing leadership



4.5 Rural developmentWith declining populations, an aging farming population, and relative poverty in rural areas, rural development is another high priority area for councils in the Western Region. As already noted in Section 5.2, bioenergy development can greatly assist with regenerating rural Ireland through provision of a wide range of job types and generation of local income and wealth. The councils can lead on this process through their energy procurement activities and provision of support for bioenergy development. This support can take the form of information services; promotion services; development of bioenergy and forestry strategies; taking action to minimise costs in the bioenergy supply chain; and working with partners to develop and supply relevant training courses to address any skill and knowledge gaps.

4.5.1 Forestry

Bioenergy area: Resource

CDP addresses: Encourage development of forestry and ancillary enterprise

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Positive for development of bioenergy resources


Prepare a county indicative forestry statement (Sligo)The Council will seek to actively encourage and facilitate where appropriate the sustainable development of the forestry sector in a scale and manner which maximises its contribution to the local rural economy. (Clare)

Possible measures:Ensure that there is no charge for forestry roads accessing public roadsThe council will work with farmers and Teagasc to encourage clustering and consolidation of new forestry to maximise the potential bioenergy benefits.

4.5.2 Rural communities

Bioenergy area: Sustainability

CDP addresses: Diverse and strong rural communities and economy

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Bioenergy can be a key contributor to this ambition as it provides a diversity of local employment and industry, as well as reducing operating costs for those utilizing the bioenergy

Current best practice in CDPs:Develop renewable energy opportunities to maximise the benefit to farmers and the local community; (Clare)

Possible measures:Specifically acknowledge that bioenergy can be a key contributor to achieving these goals.



4.5.3 Rural enterprise


CDP addresses:Encourage and support development of new rural and farm enterprises to promote rural diversity and strengthen the local economy base (vibrant rural communities)

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Bioenergy fits with this completely - local, rural, increasing diversity.

Current best practice in CDPs:Encourage integration of renewable energy into new and existing developments, including the councils own operations. (Mayo)

Possible measures:

Council work with existing and start-up businesses to provide leadership in developing biomass demand through targeted information campaigns and local council leadership installing bioenergy facilities.Council will actively encourage partners to provide training and accreditation courses for the range of people involved in bioenergy development including farmers; harvesters; hauliers; installers and maintenance personnel at regular intervals and within the county.

4.6 TravelRoad infrastructure is a large investment for county councils and needs to be protected. Bioenergy is generally transported short distances due to high relative costs of transport; and in heavy vehicles that disproportionately damage the roads. Councils can take action to both support bioenergy, minimise costs and protect their roads investment by working with hauliers and foresters to map out acceptable transport routes; encourage co-location of biomass feedstock and conversion facilities; and potentially investigate methods of transport that minimise road damage without increasing biomass costs. Other travel aspects of concern to councils includes complying with smarter travel ambitions, which can open the possibility for biomass fired district heating developments through resultant population densification. Another smarter travel ambition – decreasing the carbon footprint of transport – opens the door to pursue biogas powered bus fleets run on the methane from anaerobic digestion facilities.

4.6.1 Forestry

Bioenergy area: Supply chain

CDP addresses: Seek to recover cost of damage to public roads

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Restricts movement of biomass and/or increases costs.

Current best practice in CDPs:It is the policy of the Council to require Forestry Management Plans where afforestation is subject to the planning control process. These management plans will, inter alia, identify haul routes for the extraction of timber. (Leitrim)

Possible measures: As in previous box – provide maps of acceptable routes.



4.6.2 Motorways and national roads


CDP addresses: Safeguard investment in regional roads

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Trucks can damage roads disproportionately

Current best practice in CDPs:To preserve the carrying capacity of strategic regional roads and safeguard the investment in such infrastructure. (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Provide maps of acceptable routes for road hauliers g Potentially provide maps with maximum weight allowances per axle for each road.

g Work with farmers and foresters to identify and upgrade key roads for movement of biomass, particularly in relation to forestry clusters.

g Encourage co-location of conversion facilities with the biomass source. g Conduct and publish research into optimal transport types for each biomass type.

4.7 Wastewater treatmentWater quality protection is an essential element of county councils operations. There remains uncertainty about what current statements regarding protection of water catchment areas mean for bioenergy development, hence it is recommended that clarity be provided with respect to what can be planted, where, and what operations are permissible on the planted biomass. Provision of wastewater treatment facilities can be a significant problem and cost for the Western Region councils. SRC Willow, and possibly reed canary grass can offer a potentially lower cost and income generating bioremediation solution for wastewater treatment. Alternatively, some wastewaters may be highly suitable for anaerobic digestion to produce biogas to provide heat, electricity and/or transport.

4.7.1 Water quality protection


CDP addresses: No development where unacceptable impact on water resources will occur

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Uncertainty

Current best practice in CDPs:It is the policy of the Council to work in co-operation and partnership with all major stakeholders to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the protection and enhancement of the County’s water resources. (Mayo)

Possible measures:

g Clarify what activities are allowable, where, in relation to water resources, in particular planting and harvesting of forestry and energy crops

g Publish transparent criteria for determining allowable activities within the vicinity of water resources.



5.1 Built environment

5.1.1 Land use zonings


CDP addresses: Possible land uses

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Potential to retain high quality land for agricultural and biomass purposes

Current best practice in CDPs: Protect high quality agricultural land (Sligo)

Possible measures:Specifically state that high value agricultural land is off-limits for built development. This will probably also require some definitions of what is high quality land – e.g. tillage or former tillage land.

Bioenergy area: Market development and social acceptance.

CDP addresses: Residential zonings

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Bioenergy can provide heat, particularly in a distributed network

Current best practice in CDPs: Currently doesn’t exist.

Possible measures:In residential zonings, specifically mention heat provision and incorporating infrastructure to allow buildings to be connected to a district heating network.

5.1.2 Renewable energy


CDP addresses: Low energy and passive house design

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Heat demand in new developments will be very low, too low for viable district heating.

Current best practice in CDPs:The Council encourages low energy and passive house design and construction within the County (Leitrim)

Possible measures:Focus bioenergy development activities at industrial, commercial, and public premises with significant heat demand and at existing housing stock.

5CDPs and secondary priority areas


5.1.3 Zoning matrix


CDP addresses:CHP and Waste-to-Energy section (Clare) – treated identically in zoning matrix.

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Potentially overly restrictive for CHP development


It is the policy of the Council to support and promote:Development of CHP (Combined Heat & Power Plants) where commercially viable and having regard to considerations of proper planning and sustainable development. (Mayo)

Possible measures:

g Separate CHP and waste-to-energy g Have CHP distinguished by scale: - enable micro-CHP in residential areas, - enable small scale CHP in residential areas for District Heating purposes.

g Acknowledge different waste-to-energy technologies and potentially zone according to technology.

5.2 Cultural, social and community developmentSocial inclusion is an essential objective of local authorities, however there is limited scope for bioenergy to assist with this except for the possibility of alleviating fuel poverty in certain situations.

5.2.1 Social inclusion


CDP addresses: Supports social inclusion

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Potential to decrease fuel poverty through provision of district heating in social housing

Current best practice in CDPs:Support the principles of social inclusion and universal access to ensure that all individuals have access to goods and services and to assist them to participate in and contribute to social and cultural life. (Galway county)

Possible measures:Councils to investigate potential of bioenergy to alleviate fuel poverty in social housing.


CDPs and secondary priority areas

5.3 Employment, Economy and Enterprise

5.3.1 Agricultural development

Bioenergy area: Fuel quality and standards

CDP addresses: g Accredited training programmes as required by RES-D g Assist with development of rural enterprise and employment

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Provide expertise required to drive the industry

Current best practice in CDPs:Support sustainable income options for farm households through training, advice and financial support (Clare)

Possible measures:

Provide training: g specialist courses; g adapted courses; g CPD

for people to adapt their skills to bioenergy and heat applications.

5.3.2 Energy


CDP addresses:Promote research, technology development and innovation in sustainable energy

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Positive impact on bioenergy – potential to improve service to customers; decrease costs; develop new technologies and add value. Also assist with developing new business in the area.

Current best practice in CDPs: Develop a sustainable energy park (Mayo)

Possible measures:

g Work with the Bioenergy and Biorefining Competence Centre in Limerick to develop a high-added value biorefinery in the Western Region

g Work with Teagasc to optimise supply chains, particularly with respect to clustering small forestry units for thinning purposes

5.4 Energy

5.4.1 Energy Efficiency


CDP addresses: Promote alternative energy vehicles

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Alternative energy vehicles remain dominated by biofuels, hence this is very positive for bioenergy.

Current best practice in CDPs:Promoting the development and use of alternative energy vehicles in line with the concept of smarter travel and encourage and facilitate the development of ancillary infrastructure.

Possible measures:Council could take lead through developing AD units operating on waste and use the biogas to fuel bus fleets.



5.4.2 Energy security


CDP addresses: Promote and facilitate secure and efficient energy supply

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Secure energy supply means to a large extent indigenous feedstocks and diversified energy portfolio, both of which favour bioenergy.

Current best practice in CDPs:To promote and facilitate the achievement of a secure and efficient energy supply and storage for County Clare. (Clare)

Possible measures: Favour distributed generation within planning.

5.4.3 Gas network


CDP addresses: Expand gas network in (into) the County

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Cheap fossil fuel, negatively impacts payback period for bioenergy facilities

Current best practice in CDPs:Facilitate the extension of a natural gas distribution network to serve both the County and the Western Region.

Possible measures:If successful, publish clear maps and timetables for roll out of gas infrastructure to enable clarity in decision making in areas that are currently off the gas network.

5.5 Environment

5.5.1 Agricultural waste


CDP addresses: N/A

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Additional feedstock stream

Current best practice in CDPs: N/A

Possible measures: Mention possibility of use for energy production



5.5.2 Air pollution


CDP addresses: EU and National regulations on air quality and improving air quality


Can be multiple: g Potential to slow applications where air emissions data either not available or not fully understood

g Opportunity for biogas and biofuels for transport as can reduce vehicle emissions which are the biggest air pollution problem in the Western Region.

Current best practice in CDPs:It is the policy of the Council to maintain and improve the air quality of the County through the monitoring of air emissions from industry, road traffic and agriculture. (Mayo)

Possible measures:

g Ensure that it is published as a requirement that all biomass conversion facilities must provide air emissions data (or conversion efficiency data) as part of their application

g Ensure that planners assessing biomass conversion planning applications understand how to assess potential air pollution issues

g Adopt measure to encourage and facilitate the production of biogas for transport use

g Seek to convert council run bus fleets to biogas g Encourage and facilitate conversion of all road vehicles to non-fossil fuel power.

5.5.3 Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste


CDP addresses: Minimisation and disposal of C&D waste

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Diversion from landfill; provision of energy; provision of income and employment;


To require that a C&D Waste Management Plan is prepared by the developer having regard to the DoEHLG’s publication Best Practise Guidelines on the Preparation of Waste Management Plans for Construction and Demolition Projects for new construction or demolition projects and to require that the maximum amount of waste material generated on site is reused and recycled (Clare)

Possible measures:Make separation of C&D waste into different streams compulsory and seek to use appropriate fractions for energy recovery.



5.5.4 Noise pollution


CDP addresses: EU regulations regarding noise and minimisation of negative impacts thereof

Role/Impact on bioenergy:May impact on movement of biomass on trucks – number of daily movements; permissible routes; size of vehicles; and hours of operation.


It is the policy of the Council to ensure that noise levels from new and existing developments do not exceed normally accepted standards, as set down in the DoEHLG Noise Regulations 2006, and that the requirements of S.I No 140 of 2006 (Environmental Noise Regulations 2006) are complied with, with regard to existing and future development in proximity to National roads. (Mayo)

Possible measures:Publish criteria for noise pollution restrictions to enable assessment of possible supply chain clashes prior to development, particularly for large conversion facilities sited near towns.

5.5.5 Soils

Bioenergy area: Resource; By-products

CDP addresses: Decrease agricultural pollution and eutrophication


g Impacts potential for using energy crops to provide bioremediation for industrial sludges.

g Has implications for where, when and how much digestate from AD can be spread on farms. Also provides opportunity for digestate to displace fertilizer use in some areas.

Current best practice in CDPs:It is the policy of the Council to promote and support measures to reduce the risk of pollution from agriculture and the eutrophication of rivers and lakes. (Mayo)

Possible measures:Provide maps of high risk areas with respect to soil nutrients to assist with AD siting decisions.



5.6 LandscapeTourism is a significant industry in the Western Region, and protecting beautiful landscapes is important for quality of life, hence landscape protection is an area of concern for the county councils. Visual amenity regulations can limit the potential for developing biomass feedstock, without necessarily being obvious where these restrictions apply. Removing this uncertainty will assist with bioenergy planning and development.

5.6.1 Visual amenity

Bioenergy area: Resource (and also conversion)

CDP addresses: Protect the visual amenity of the landscape

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Reduces areas possible to undertake bioenergy resource development. Can create uncertainty.


Oppose forestry proposals which would negatively impact on the views to be had from the following approach roads to Glenveagh National Park: g Glendowan to Doochary Road g Dunlewy to Termon Road g Churchill to Termon/Dunlewy Road (Donegal)

Possible measures:

g Publish maps of areas off-limits to forestry for this reason g Publish clear criteria for decision making with respect to forestry and energy crops

g Publish clear criteria for decision making with respect to conversion facilities.

5.7 Travel

5.7.1 Motorways and national roads


CDP addresses: Safeguard transport function

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Maintenance of good quality transport network for biomass transport

Current best practice in CDPs:To safeguard the strategic transport function of the motorway and national road network and associated junctions in order to cater for the safe and efficient movement of interurban and inter-regional traffic. (Clare)

Possible measures:Work with the National Roads Authority to identify key areas for motorway and national road upgrade and development.

5.7.2 Smarter travel


CDP addresses: Decreased carbon footprint of transport sector

Role/Impact on bioenergy: Opens door for biofuels, biogas for transport

Current best practice in CDPs:Support the reduction of the carbon footprint of the County’s transport sector. (Leitrim)

Possible measures:Set target for percentage of bus fleet powered by sustainable energy.Encourage, support, and facilitate private bus fleets and road hauliers in particular to convert to biogas or biofuels.



5.7.3 Travel

Bioenergy area: Market development

CDP addresses:Smarter travel, including promoting non-car transport options, and planning approach related to delivering this.

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Likely involves settlement densification, opens potential opportunity for District Heating.


Possible measures:Require all new, in-fill and retrofit developments to consider the potential for district heating, and also to include necessary infrastructure (pipes, etc.) to enable district heating to be installed in the future.

5.8 TourismTourism is a major industry for the Western Region, and there have been moves to encourage eco-tourism as well. As such, councils seek to encourage further tourism development as part of their economic and rural regeneration and diversification strategies. Bioenergy has a limited role to play, but can assist with providing low-carbon tourist offerings, and potentially with leveraging additional set-up finance where a long-term biomass supply contract is in place.

5.8.1 Eco-tourism


CDP addresses: Support green/eco-tourism in an environmentally sustainable manner

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Bioenergy is nearly carbon neutral, hence possible heating/electricity source for eco-tourism development


To support rural tourism development and facilitate agri-tourism enterprises and green/ eco-tourism development in an environmentally sustainable manner in order to benefit the employment and development of rural areas. (Clare)Alternative energy sources shall be developed and utilized where possible to service such development [tourism related development] (Galway County)

Possible measures:

g Facilitate and encourage bioenergy for heating, cooling and electricity use in eco-tourism developments

g Work with eco-tourism operators in the region to minimise their carbon footprint

g Develop and issue a low-carbon eco-tourism marketing campaign for Ireland, Europe and the rest of the World that highlights the low carbon aspect of the offerings.



5.8.2 Rural tourism

Bioenergy area: Other (benefits)

CDP addresses: Rural business development


Rural tourism requires some capital investment, which can be difficult to obtain. Farmers with a portion of their farmer devoted to energy crops that they supply under a guaranteed long-term contract are in a better position to leverage bank financing for other activities – such as developing a rural tourism offering.


Possible measures: g Provide leadership by installing bioenergy facilities run on energy crops g Encourage and promote both bioenergy installations and the diversification into energy crops.

5.9 Water and Wastewater treatment

5.9.1 Wastewater treatment


CDP addresses:Need to provide sufficient wastewater treatment facilities and to upgrade existing facilities, including consideration of biological treatment.

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Could use SRC Willow for bioremediation, increasing the yield and reducing nutrient issues. May also enable cost savings on treatment.

Current best practice in CDPs:To provide water and wastewater facilities in accordance with statutory obligations as set out by EU and National policy (Clare)

Possible measures:

g Map areas suitable for bioremediation by SRC Willow (low – med phosphorus soils)

g Investigate potential for savings on wastewater treatment through using biological treatment

g Adopt strategy to use SRC Willow for bioremediation g Reduce permitting effort and costs for bioremediation of sewage with SRC Willow.


CDP addresses: Energy recovery from wastewater

Role/Impact on bioenergy:Potential development of additional energy on-site energy, or biogas for off-site use including in transport.

Current best practice in CDPs:Examine feasibility of energy recovery from large sewage treatment facilities (Sligo)

Possible measures:Investigate potential benefits arising from treating wastewater using AD with energy recovery.



To achieve success in making change, policy frameworks need to be implemented and monitored. This section takes a look at some of the steps that can be taken by county and city councils to ensure that bioenergy becomes integrated into the energy, economic and social fabric of the Western Region. These are in addition to potential changes already outlined in the previous sections. The previous two chapters aimed to assist councils in the Western Region to rapidly uptake best practice with respect to bioenergy by highlighting current best practice in different areas of the County Development Plans.

County and City councils in the Western Region have substantial power to influence renewable energy, and bioenergy development. They remain a major source of spending within the regional economy, and can use this position allied with green public procurement predicated on triple bottom line tender assessments to lead renewable energy development. They are also major regulatory and permitting body’s, and can use their position to ensure renewable energy is on the agenda, and that renewable energy applications are run through a transparent process with clear, minimised timetables at minimal cost. In their position within the County Development Boards the councils have the opportunity to encourage other organisations in the region to also be favourable to renewable energy. As sources of information, they are able to promote renewable energy; as service providers, the councils can choose bioenergy options.

6.1 The change frameworkDelivering bioenergy and leveraging the benefits will require a series of steps to be taken by the county councils, individually and cooperatively. These steps, considered in more detail below, can be considered as follows:

1. Create the vision. The county and regional vision for bioenergy will drive the necessary council action. This action may include identifying specific outcomes and targets.

2. Organisational reform to deliver change. A clearly defined and assigned senior level role for renewable energy that includes a brief to deliver on bioenergy. This role to be heavily and directly supported by the county manager, and have cross-cutting access and powers as bioenergy cuts across many areas.

3. Set out a clear pathway to achieving the vision. This sets out the approach to be taken and could include for example delivering leadership; regional cooperation and standardization of approach; and creating a welcoming and well communicated environment for bioenergy. It starts by benchmarking the council approach through comparing their CDP with the best practice identified in this report.

4. Implementation of the pathway. Deliver the actions that have been identified.

5. Monitor, evaluate and adjust. By undertaking these necessary steps the pathway and its implementation can be adjusted and optimized to most rapidly and efficiently deliver the targeted bioenergy outcome.

6Taking action – leveraging the benefits of bioenergy


6.2 Immediate actions

6.2.1 Leadership

Policy

g As a prerequisite, it is necessary that County Managers and other policy makers openly acknowledge that bioenergy is both necessary and desirable, and that they are responsible for driving change. This must be done within published documents, in written policy, and preferably also in public and media forums. It will also require an internal structure to deliver change and demonstrate commitment. Without County Managers providing their full, visible and active support it is unlikely that further measures will provide great success.

g County and City councils can make a big difference to bioenergy by both specifying a vision for bioenergy, and integrating bioenergy into the vision for the county or city. Providing a vision that is consistently applied throughout the CDP sends a clear signal to developers, investors and farmers that bioenergy is a high priority. This will have the impact of giving confidence to potential investors and reducing risk perceptions, greatly increasing the likelihood of future investment. It needs a very clear statement linking bioenergy with the overall council vision.

g Set specific targets for bioenergy development. The act of setting such targets drives its own momentum, and confirms to stakeholders that the vision is not just words, but that concrete actions will follow, and that there is a genuine commitment to bioenergy. The starting point for these targets should be that national policy sets the minimum level of ambition, and that the real level of ambition should be based on an assessment of the county resources.

g Seek support from the County Development Board for the bioenergy vision. This will ideally include written statements, and also practical support according to each members areas of operation and capabilities.

g Acknowledge economic benefits of bioenergy within the CDPs

Processes

g Clearly define a person role for renewable energy within the council and assign as the main or only role to a staff member. This staff member is to be directly supported in their role by the County Manager to ensure that it is not diluted with other responsibilities. The role and the person responsible are to be clearly communicated throughout the council and all enquiries regarding renewable energy directed to them. They will also be clearly identified on the council website and relevant publications, and given training in understanding renewable energy and how to assess applications. Where a county energy agency exists, this role may be undertaken by that organisation provided they are given a genuine decision making and communication role within the council. The delegated person will need to lead a cross-divisional team within the council due to the cross-cutting nature of renewable energy, and will need to liaise with other renewable energy officers in the Western Region to enable regional coordination of renewable energy (some mechanism for one of these officers to take the lead as regional coordinator would be advantageous)

g Update the CDPs to best practice for bioenergy to demonstrate council leadership. All counties have made good starts in this area and can improve further using the research presented in Chapters 4 and 5 in this report. RASLRES may be able to offer support to the councils to undertake this benchmarking exercise. To most effectively deliver this change will most likely require an internal working group with a member from each directorate, and a set of deliverables for each directorate. This will facilitate change throughout the CDP.


Taking action – leveraging the benefits of bioenergy

Procurement

g Make a clear commitment to procuring on the basis of the triple bottom line – taking not just the direct economic factors into consideration, but also the wider economic, social and environmental considerations.

g Implement best practice in Green Public Procurement as recently published by the EU50.

g Formalise a preference for renewable energy in retrofit and new development. This can be by both statement and by implementing preferential planning treatment such as faster application processing and decreased costs.

6.2.2 Communication

Communication with stakeholders can raise awareness; change perceptions positively; provide confidence; and, very importantly, make it easier to develop bioenergy. If done effectively, it may have a bigger impact than all other measures put together.

Clearly stated criteria for policies included in the CDP

One of the recurring themes amongst the notes above is the need to establish clear and transparent criteria. One example where this has been done successfully is in the Galway County Council County Development Plan as follows:

There is a clear list of what will need to be considered to make a planning decision. It is an excellent start, and can be improved even further by providing information concerning each of these criteria (e.g. for point 5. Could say that developments that lead to more than 40 vehicle movements per year containing axle loadings of greater than 10 tonnes, or more than 100 vehicle movements with axle loadings greater than 8 tonnes will not be considered)

50 Buying Green! Green public procurement in Europe (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/pdf/handbook_summary.pdf)

Policy ED1: Small scale enterprises, which applicants seek to establish in rural areas in which the applicant is resident which can be accommodated in existing farm buildings or can be established on brownfield sites and which are not suitable or would not be appropriate on industrial or commercially zoned lands in towns and villages will be considered on individual merit. Criteria that will be considered will include:

1. Scale of development (number of employees, scale of buildings required)

2. Nature of the development

3. Compatibility of the development with the rural economic profile (supportive of part time farming families)

4. “Good Neighbour” principles (compatibility with agricultural land uses and impact on existing residences)

5. Impact on road network, road capacity and traffic levels.

6. General suitability in the unserviced rural area.

7. Substantiate need to locate in rural area.

8. Consideration of social, economic and environmental impacts.

9. Re-use of existing buildings.

10. Compliance with the policies of the NRA and Galway County Council with regard to access onto National Roads.

Developing a set of ticksheets for bioenergy planning applications will make it easier to do business, save time and money for both applicants and planners, provide transparency and meet EU guidelines.



This sort of approach, where the criteria for decision making is laid out clearly and in the same place as the policy provides far greater certainty and understanding, reduces the number of applications likely to be unsuccessful, and very probably reduces the demand on planners time as applicants do not need to contact them to seek this information and are more likely to have addressed the criteria in their application.

Clearly stated criteria for assessing an application

Developing a set of ticksheets for bioenergy planning applications will make it easier to do business, save time and money for both applicants and planners, provide transparency and meet EU guidelines. Applications regarding bioenergy are likely to touch on a number of CDP policies. These ticksheets will list the requirements for bioenergy planning applications, and also the CDP policies that are most likely to be used to assess the applications. As with providing policy criteria, this is expected to make it easier to do business, reduce the time and costs for applicants and council in developing and assessing applications, and increase the success rate of those applications.

Timetables for assessing applications

It is recommended that councils set and publish timetables for processing of bioenergy applications, and stick to them. It is a key recommendation arising from the European best practice in bioenergy study, BAPDriver51, and can both substantially improve investor confidence and decrease the costs involved in delivering a bioenergy project.

Maintaining frank and open dialogue with applicants

At least one county in the Western Region has garnered a lot of praise from applicants for their willingness to engage in open dialogue with the applicant and work with the applicant to find solutions to issues that have arisen. Such an approach is very welcome, and in itself can go a long way in helping to deliver substantial bioenergy projects.

Taking learning from these discussions to develop a regional information pack with case studies would also be very helpful. In providing this information pack, not only are the learning outcomes captured and documented in an accessible manner, they enable new applicants to either avoid previous mistakes or address potential issues before the application is even submitted, thereby saving time and also reducing the workload on county planning departments.

Promoting renewable energy, and bioenergy in particular

There is a substantial amount of inertia, and even lack of awareness regarding renewable energy. This exists from convincing farmers to grow energy crops, through training of renewable energy installers, to procurement of energy facilities. Regional coordination of internal working groups together with energy agencies, potentially with the assistance of projects such as RASLRES, would seem the best approach to addressing this inertia. Alongside this regional coordination each council can take direct and immediate action to promote renewable energy through their various communication channels.

51 http://www.bapdriver.org/doku.php/home?DokuWiki=85c1ab759261ae535d05fbde904f42cf



6.3 Longer term actions

6.3.1 Standardizing the approach to bioenergy within the Western Region

It is essential to standardize the approach to bioenergy in the Western Region if it is to grow rapidly and attract substantial inwards investment. It is all about making it easy to do business. If a business submits an application in one county regarding bioenergy (e.g.: a license to spread industrial sludge on energy crops for bioremediation; proposing a transport route for forestry thinnings; or for construction of a commercial scale CHP facility) than exactly the same application requirements and application processing should apply in adjacent counties.

To achieve this standardization will require working through a joint forum either directly with, or in close cooperation with county managers, such as that already in operation with RASLRES, or potentially with SEAI should their programme develop further. It will take strong commitment by both managers and planners to achieve. The first steps are mentioned above – providing clear criteria with each CDP policy, and providing both ticksheets and timetables for processing of applications. Once these are completed the similarities and differences between how counties assess applications will become evident and enable a clear route to standardization.

An important aspect of working together within the region will be coming together to define standards. These standards will be across a range of areas – certification schemes for those working in the industry; engineering standards for the delivery of heat (it is recommended that the councils work with the Institute of Engineers Ireland on this); and standards regarding biomass.

As part of their leadership function, councils may seek to be proactive regarding generating energy from waste. It is likely that in some instances working cooperatively to deliver fewer, larger facilities will provide greater return on investment than each council developing multiple small scale facilities (although there will still be a role for small scale facilities).

This cooperation to deliver a better, larger outcome could also apply to the energy agencies that exist in the Western Region and the council internal energy management teams. By aligning themselves closely with a common set of objectives and a close working relationship they are likely to be able to reduce costs; have greater success in obtaining European funding; and deliver positive outcomes more rapidly than they can do without such cooperation. The learning and success that has already been achieved at individual county level, such as that with wood energy by the Clare Energy Agency, could be rolled out rapidly across the region. Providing these county energy organisations with the resources to share their learning, or alternatively roll out their successful programmes, and the mission and permission to do so will benefit all in the Western Region. Renewable energy, and especially bioenergy can sometimes benefit from a cross border approach, particularly in developing supply chains – hence a regional approach is more likely to deliver greater, more rapid and more sustainable success.

The councils can also work together or individually to localise bioenergy – seeking through direct procurement routes, through planning, and through communication to co-locate resource development and conversion facilities.

6.3.2 Decreasing the costs of renewable energy – planning and RD&D

Councils can play a role in decreasing the costs of renewable energy going forward by:

g Streamlining planning processes for renewable energy

g Investing in renewable energy facilities themselves and allowing access for demonstration purposes.

g Supporting research and development into renewable energy

g Providing or insisting on standards, such as certification schemes for installers.



6.3.3 Financing

The Italian model for permitting renewable energy applications could be investigated for modifying and applying to the Western Region. In this model52, an organisation (the “Conferenza dei servisi”) is responsible for determining what permits will be needed for the application, from which authorities. The applicant attends a meeting to which all of the required permitting authorities have been invited for a face-to-face meeting to debate any problems concerning the installation. The applicant can then put in a revised application addressing these issues and a follow-up meeting is organized by the coordinating organisation. This enables all necessary contact points and issues to be identified and addressed at once, and if there are any conflicting problems between permitting authorities they are both present to seek a resolution. With the provision of meeting, permitting and application modification timetables this process has the potential to greatly accelerate permitting of renewable energy projects, and decrease the costs involved in such developments.

There are high initial capital costs associated with bioenergy conversion facilities, and it can be hard to either obtain financing or convince investors to make the initial investment. The councils may opt to consider adopting some schemes to assist with financing issues, which may include any of the following:52

g Setting up a regional business wholly owned by the local authorities to deliver bioenergy installations for the councils (and any private organisations they may win business with)

g Forming public-private partnerships.

g Use of local green certificates

g Ensure that special development funds are cognizant of bioenergy.

g County councils to conduct BERs on all building stock, and require leased buildings to meet a minimum BER standard. This will also assist with heat mapping and targeting of building stock for retrofit and potential bioenergy heating installation. It shows the council taking the lead and may result in decreased energy costs for the council.

6.3.4 Additional communication measures

Providing detailed information regarding resources and demand for energy can greatly assist with development of renewable energy schemes. Starting to develop a heat map for the Western Region would be one example. It may soon become a requirement through the Energy Efficiency Directive, but a very low level start could be made by obtaining and publishing BERs for all council properties, and, if feasible, actual heat use information. These could be cross referenced with maps of bioenergy potential analogous to those already existing for wind farm potential.

Other maps of value that may be provided include:

g Areas suitable for development of conversion facilities

g Preferred road routes for supply trucks

g Preferred areas for resource development.

As part of their communication function, councils may also elect to work with foresters to maximize the wood energy output, and with farmers to increase production of woody biomass through energy crops, short rotation forestry and forestry.

52 Belfiore, F. et. al., 2009. Benchmark of Bioenergy Permitting Procedures in the European Union. Brussels: European Commission. (Downloadable from http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/bioenergy/doc/installations/ecofys_final_report_benchmark_bioenergy.pdf as at 9th January 2012)



6.3.5 Planning

There are some longer term planning measures that might be considered by the councils to assist development of renewable and bioenergy. These include:

g Liaising with the SEAI sustainable energy communities’ programme.

g Developing renewable energy plans for larger population clusters

g Developing maps of areas considered most suitable for bioenergy crop development (locating them close to demand points)

g Promoting mixed developments to promote District Heating (through an anchor heat load and lesser loads).

g Develop local area plans for bioenergy development within the Region.

g Provide a clear statement on what is considered bioenergy

g Potentially encourage short rotation forestry and energy crops in some areas where forestry is not preferred.

Related to planning, consideration may be given to training planners to understand renewable energy applications. This training is already underway in at least one county and provides information on what planners need to know to properly assess renewable energy applications.

Renewable Energy ZonesRenewable Energy Zones (REZs) can be used as a method to focus and accelerate renewable energy development in the most appropriate areas. Queensland, Australia is adopting this approach (as are many areas of the US) and has written the following into their Renewable Energy Plan:

Building on the resource mapping project, Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) will be designated in areas where there is the best quality renewable energy resource, the greatest potential for network availability and energy demand growth. Development of the REZs will include specific proposals to facilitate common user infrastructure such as transmission and distribution, provision of land, investment incentives and streamlined regulatory and approval processes.

A suite of incentives will be developed as part of the Industry Development Plan to attract renewable energy generators to the state, particularly to the designated Renewable Energy Zones. The incentives package could include: the establishment of technology-specific feed-in tariffs, preferential access to state-owned land, training and recruitment costs and the provision of common use infrastructure.

The counties in the Western Region could consider a regional approach to developing Renewable Energy Zones as highly attractive centres for inwards investment and renewable (particularly bioenergy) development. The bioenergy GIS could be used to identify resource supply clusters and community energy mapping used in cooperation with SEAI to identify areas of significant demand. By linking these two likely areas to initiate Renewable Energy Zones will become apparent.



This report has outlined where bioenergy does and can sit within local authorities of the Western Region. County Development Plans address the same topic areas, which are the areas that councils operate in and can make a difference. They all appear to aim towards sustainably improving the quality of life for people living and working in the Western Region.

Bioenergy can play a major role in delivering the visions of the counties and cities in the Western Region. Within this report it has been shown that bioenergy can deliver on economic, social and environmental areas. County and city councils have a role to play in ensuring that bioenergy reaches its potential, and in doing so leads to rural regeneration, increased employment, diversified and secure energy supply, inwards investment and the development of twin export industries for both raw materials and skilled services.

The two primary roles for county and city councils are leadership and making it easy to do business. They can provide leadership by including bioenergy in the grand vision, while also developing a vision for bioenergy. They can make it easy to do business through provision of full, clear and transparent criteria and timetables both within and accompanying the County and City Development Plans.

To effectively implement and achieve any bioenergy vision that is put in place will require development of internal delivery structures. We would see that as being at least an internal working group with representatives from each directorate. Each representative would be required to deliver on specific targets and outcomes, particularly in relation to benchmarking and improving the County Development Plans.

Alongside this, County Managers can advocate bioenergy development through the County Development Boards. In doing so, they can bring into play other large actors within the region and greatly assist with delivering bioenergy targets.

Cooperation between county working groups will deliver regional success. Bioenergy runs across county borders, and adopting a cooperative, standardized, regional approach is far more likely to attract foreign investment and promote the development of the local bioenergy industry.

Information for elected representatives will be very important when councils develop their communication plans to promote bioenergy within the region. Elected representatives need to understand the benefits for their communities from bioenergy development. Without this understanding, political support for delivering the bioenergy vision may be difficult to obtain.

7Summary


What is RASLRES?RASLRES (Regional Approaches to Stimulating Renewable Energy Solutions) is an EU bioenergy project led by the WDC and funded under the Northern Periphery Programme of INTERREG IVB. The total project budget is €2.8 million over three years. Commencing in September 2009, RASLRES aims to increase the uptake of locally produced bioenergy solutions through the development and implementation of market development models. The project focus is on pilot actions in regard to wood energy, energy crops and marine biomass fuels.

RASLRES is an international partnership which includes:

g Western Development Commission – Ireland

g Action Renewables – Northern Ireland, UK

g Environmental Research Institute, North Highland College – Scotland

g Municipality of Norsjö – Sweden

In the Western Region RASLRES supports the growth of the wood energy sector by delivering practical services to market players and by informing policy development. During 2010 and 2011 RASLRES delivered a range of actions with a focus on selected pilot projects. The project aims to:

g build sustainable local loops of wood fuel supply and demand via new (or existing) wood fueled boilers

g offer best practice approaches to support industry development

g help build critical mass and scale in the wood energy sector of the region

g support investment plans and help secure project finance

RASLRES adopts a full supply chain approach - looking at the energy chain from supply (i.e. fuel producers / processors) to demand (i.e. energy users). The services to the wood energy sector include:

g provision of a range of impartial technical and business advisory support services to selected clients progressing wood energy projects in the region

g generation of market information and intelligence to support the sector e.g. resource forecasting from private sector forestry, assessment of energy crop potential, technical and business case studies

g accessing of international expertise and facilitation of networking with EU markets

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Summary

www.wdc.ie

www.raslres.eu

For further information contact:

Western Development CommissionDillon House, Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon.

Tel: +353 (0)94 986 1441 Email: [email protected]