Irish Farmers believe that renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass is the way to move forward both for themselves and the country as a whole. Rising fuel and energy costs are putting increasing financial pressure on Irish homes and businesses and this trend is projected to continue into the future. Renewable energy has the potential to reduce business costs and the massive annual import bill for fossil fuels. It can also generate additional income for many thousands of farm and other businesses across rural Ireland.
Our dependence on imported fossil fuels is far too high and puts the Country at significant risk should some political or world event curtail supply or further accelerate fuel costs going forward. The government is already committed to 33% of electricity from renewables by 2020. Ireland must also meet its very aggressive Kyoto targets for our CO2 emissions.
Planning restrictions are seriously slowing down the expansion of renewable energy projects in Ireland. The electricity load restrictions and connection difficulties present further difficulties. A few small amendments to the current restrictions could see the roll out of more renewable projects in Ireland which in turn would help with new job creation to help with the downturn in the construction sector. In addition farming needs other ways to generate income and to help it deal will escalated costs of energy and other inputs.
The government needs to take action in a number of area’s to ease the spread of renewables across Ireland. For more information and suggestions see the IFA website.
Enerpower can help with your planning permission to get you started on the road to renewable energy.
