Thurles Swimming Pool Makes a Huge Saving By Going Green
Thurles Town Council took a huge step forward toward an eco friendly future this week with the commissioning of a 550kW biomass boiler at Thurles Swimming Pool and Leisure Centre. Waterford based, Enerpower installed a Gilles woodchip boiler to replace two existing LPG boilers. The biomass system will provide 100% of the facility’s heat and hot water requirement.
In the photo: Paddy Phelan (TEA- Tipperary Energy Agency), John Ryan (Thurles Town Council), Owen Power (Managing Director, Enerpower), Celine Boyer (Thurles Leisure Centre Manager).
Heating represents a major cost for leisure centres. However, this project will reduce Thurles swimming pool’s heating costs by over 50% per annum. This is possible because woodchip is significantly cheaper then oil or LPG.
Thurles Swimming Pool is intent on meeting its national targets in terms of energy efficiency and renewable energy. They are well on their way to achieving their goals. The pool’s carbon footprint will be dramatically reduced as wood chip is carbon neutral. The switch to biomass is predicted to reduce the centre’s carbon emissions by 390 tonnes annually.
The pool has signed a maintenance and fuel supply contract with Enerpower. Fuel is being delivered from a Tipperary based supplier, contributing to the development of local wood fuel supply infrastructure. In this case, rather than supply wood chip per tonne, Enerpower sell heat per kWh. This removes any concerns about varying quality of wood fuel or performance of the boiler.
Owen Power, managing director for Enerpower said “We hope that Thurles Town Councils decision to select biomass as means of heating the pool will encourage other authorities to consider renewable energy in the future”.
With official fuel price forecasts indicating that fossil fuel energy costs will rise steadily in the long term the utilisation of local biomass resources are beginning to be recognised as a commercially viable alternative.
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