Renewable energy and climate change
ONE of those thought-provoking captions, seen on fridge magnets, says something like: ‘If you don’t look after your body you will have no place to live.’ With evidence of climate change all around us another thought-provoking caption could be: ‘If you don’t look after the planet future generations will have no place to live.’
Kerry Sustainable Energy Co-operative Ltd (KSEC) is a small but growing community co-operative running totally on voluntary efforts. We formed in October 2015 and grew out of a subgroup of Transition Kerry which focused on energy and produced an extensive research document ‘ Transition Kerry’s Sustainable Energy Community Roadmap.’ This is an action plan for County Kerry’s transition to 100 per cent renewable energy supply. (Link to copy of the document at www.ksec.ie).
KSEC’s aims are: To substitute our reliance on imported and non-renewable energy with locally sourced and owned energy, to increase security of energy supply to members, to reduce fuel poverty, to educate on energy efficiency.
Some of KSEC’s work to date includes:
The purchase of energy monitors and moisture meters: These were donated to Kerry County Libraries where they are available to all library members to borrow and to check the energy use of various appliances in the home or, in the case of firewood, to check the moisture content of the firewood we are burning.
A firewood purchase scheme: This service sources locally grown, good quality hardwood and softwood firewood from local foresters and offers bulk orders to Co-op members.
Information events on aspects of renewable energy for the home: These events help to educate participants about solar, biomass, retrofitting etc. and offer further advice into the future. These are also useful events in the raising of awareness and in offering encouragement to those who are coming to the issues around climate change for the first time. During this autumn the co-op is planning three such information evenings in different parts of the county: In Tralee Library on Tuesday, September 26, at 6.30pm and in Scoil Mhuire School, Killorglin on Wednesday, October 25 ,also at 6.30pm. In November the co-op will be in Dingle, at s date and venue yet to be confirmed.
BEC/SEAI This is a collaborative programme initiated and part funded by the Sustainable Energy Agency Ireland (SEAI). The Better Energy Communities (BEC) project is about the retrofitting of homes and public buildings. In 2016/17 Kerry Sustainable Energy Co-operative has collaborated with Kerry County Council and with SE Systems – a Cork-based energy company who administered the programme on our behalf. Its goal is to help local communities become more energy resilient and self-reliant; to help them reduce their energy bills and increase thermal comfort of their homes, businesses and community buildings and to reduce fuel poverty in Kerry.
To date a number of domestic and public buildings have been part of this project. Non domestic buildings in Tralee, Dingle, Killorglin, Castleisland and Ballybunion have received energy upgrades. The co-op plans to make a submission to this scheme again in 2017/18. The information evenings, mentioned above, will be an opportunity to learn more about the scheme and how to become involved. The co-op is also committed to hiring local skilled and registered tradespeople for this work.
These may be seen as small initiatives but we believe that our climate change programme has to be tackled by every sector of society. Our vision for Kerry sees the county transition to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030. For this to come about Kerry needs more community-owned renewable energy projects that help communities save energy and money and increase resilience. We need more rooftop solar PV throughout the county as well as community owned solar farms.
We would love you to be part of this journey. More info is available at www.ksec.ie.