Global delegation in county for passive housing training plan
PROPOSED CENTRE WOULD BE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN IRELAND
A DELEGATION of world leaders in sustainable energy will visit County Wexford on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of locating Ireland’s first Passive House Training Centre near Enniscorthy.
The delegation, headed by Scott Foster of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, will arrive in Ireland today (Tuesday) and after a courtesy call on Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Government Buildings will travel to Wexford on Wednesday morning for a briefing seminar before an invited audience in County Hall.
Wexford County Council’s Chief Executive, Mr Tom Enright and Director of Services for the Enniscorthy area, Mr John Carley, will receive the delegation at County Hall and after a lunch, hosted by the County Council, Mr Tomas O’Leary of the Nearly Zero Energy Buildings Resource Agency, will give an overview of the International Training Centre proposed for Enniscorthy.
The delegation, in addition to Mr Foster, includes Dr David Riley, Professor of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University; Dr. Somayeh Asadi, the Hartz Family Career Development Assistant Professor, Department of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University; Ms Lisa Shulock, Co-Director, Penn State at the Navy Yard and Robert Cavey, Partner, Praxis, Washington DC, will travel to Enniscorthy on Wednesday afternoon to view the site of the proposed international training centre at Killagoley where plans are at an advanced stage for a new Technological Park.
The delegation will also visit Ireland’s first affordable certified Passive House and Nearly Zero Energy Building social housing project at The Moyne which has been constructed by Michael Bennett and Sons, Building Contractors, for Wexford County Council.
Wexford County Council is the first Local Authority in Ireland to embrace the nZEB (Nearly Zero Energy Buildings) concept and it is as a result of this initiative that the county has been earmarked for Ireland’s first Passive House Training Centre.
Enniscorthy Town Manager, Ms Liz Hore, together with Enniscorthy Municipal Authority Chairman, Councillor Oliver Walsh, will host a reception for the visiting party in Enniscorthy Castle on Wednesday evening before the delegation attend a dinner in their honour in the Riverside Park Hotel on Wednesday night.
Wexford County Council are delighted to host the Global High Performance Buildings Framework International Education and Research delegation and sees it as a wonderful opportunity to have world leaders in the field of sustainable energy travel to Wexford to explore the opportunities of building an international training centre in Enniscorthy.
The delegation visit follows on from the very successful nZEB Housing Conference which took place in Enniscorthy in March and which was addressed by Minister for Housing, Mr Simon Coveney T.D.
Minister of State, Mr Paul Kehoe has been instrumental in bringing the delegation to Wexford and he is using the powers of his office in pushing the case for the building of the training centre in Enniscorthy.
With a site for the proposed development now secured and with funding for the project understood to be already in place, the hope is that the proposed training centre will be up and running before Ireland introduces nZEB building compliance as mandatory from 2018 for all public buildings and from 2020 for all other types of buildings.