Decarbonising Irelands housing stock is a significant task that needs to be undertaken in the next 15 to 20 years. Current plans call for deep retrofitting 60,000 houses per year for the next 10 years so that these houses reduce their heating demand to a level suitable for heat pumps, or other low heat systems. With Ireland struggling to build 30,000 houses per year for a variety of reasons including labour shortages it is obvious that the plan to deep retrofit 600,000 houses by 2030 can not be achieved. Biomass heating with wood pellet boilers or gasification boilers offer the opportunity to dramatically reduce carbon emissions from houses traditionally using oil and peat, and to do so at much less cost than the deep retrofit / heat pump model. In this webinar we will discuss the costs and practicality of converting houses to biomass, and will discuss with technology providers the options available for householders.
View the live Webinar here and the presentation slides here
Speakers
Ger Crosse - WoodCo Renewable Energy
WoodCo Renewable Energy has become a leading manufacturer and supplier of residential and commercial Biomass Boiler systems. Their manufacturing facility is located in Tipperary, they have supplied over 4,000 boilers worldwide. Installations include pigs, mushroom and poultry farms, care homes, hotels & leisure centres.
In recent years, the company’s Research and Development team have begun to focus on complex waste-to-energy systems and Woodco has won several awards including the prestigious Green Product Award in 2018.

Colm Byrne - Glas Energy
Biomass combustion is a complex process from forest to flue. Often design issues only arise after many years of operation. It was for this reason that in 2005 Glas Energy decided to partner with one of Europe’s industry leaders, HDG Bavaria. Built on a tradition of heating with timber the Bavarian company manufacture a highly reliable efficient range of boilers to manage all wood-based fuels including sawdust, shavings, chip, pellet and solid timber. In this webinar Colm will speak about 15 years of experience with wood Gasification boilers in Ireland. He will highlight the importance of setting expectations, system design and components and the essential role that solid timber can and needs to play as a fuel source for both the rural home, local economy and national targets.

IrBEA Panelist
Noel Gavigan - IrBEA Technical Executive (Chair)

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

Speakers
John Sherlock – Sherlogs
A Certified Wood Fuel Quality Assurance Supplier based in Navan, Co Meath
Ken McCauley - McCauley Wood Fuels
A Certified Wood Fuel Quality Assurance Supplier based in Mohill Co Leitrim
Noel Gavigan – IrBEA Technical Director (Chair)

This webinar, the fourth in the ‘IrBEA Bioenergy Webinar Series 2020’.  Bioenergy Europe shared their expert knowledge and insights. Secretary General, Jean-Marc Jossart outlined how the Bioenergy sector can contribute to 32% renewable energy target by 2030 as set out in the Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II). The European Green Deal recently published by the EU Commission, has an overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral by 2050. Noel Gavigan IrBEA Executive also presents, he addresses the role  the Bioenergy sector can play in Ireland in contributing to reduced emissions. A recording of the two presentations and Q&A can be found HERE and the presentations slides HERE

The IrBEA Bioenergy Webinar Series 2020 kicked off today, it was promising to see 65 participants registered for this event. Noel Gavigan and Eugene Hendrick had an information packed one hour talk on domestic and commercial renewable heating. They discussed the differences between wood pellet and woodchip boilers and stoves. This was followed by discussing the choice of appliances and the need to move toward efficient low carbon options such as eco-design stoves. Wood fuel was discussed in detail and the need for the fuel to be certified through the WFQA Scheme which insures below 20% moisture content which both increases efficiency of heating but also minimises emissions to air for the consumer. Finally there was a discussion on industrial use for wood fuel. It was emphasised that wood chip and wood pellets offer the only viable solution for renewable supply of heat or steam. It is has in fact got the lowest carbon footprint for heat of all the fuel options and we now have the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat available for commercial projects which gives grants for a 15 year period.
If you would like to see the webinar please view here
If you would like to view the presentation slides please view here

The members of the WFQA are very committed to promoting quality fuels, and striving to lift the standards of the entire industry. This document reports on the activities of the organisation over the last 12 months with updates on the committee and details on aims and ambitions of the members going forward. Read report here