Fifty-one agricultural enterprises have been approved for biomass-specific grant aid under the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH).
The figure includes 24 poultry farmers, 15 mushroom producers, eight pig farmers, and two horticultural enterprises.
The figures were revealed at a recent workshop at Teagasc Ashtown Food Research Centre, which looked at the role of carbon neutral biomass in reducing farm fuel costs.
What is the SSRH
This is a government-funded initiative designed to increase the energy generated from renewable sources in the heat sector. The scheme is open to commercial, industrial, agricultural, district heating, public sector and other non-domestic heat users. It is administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
In the agricultural sector, the scheme is particularly aimed at enterprises that depend on fossil-fuelled boilers, Ray Langton, from the SEAI, explained.
In the main, these would be poultry, pig, and horticultural producers.
Under-subscribed
But, although the scheme is getting some traction now, it is, generally, under-subscribed, he told Agriland.
“Yes, overall. The scheme is – and SEAI would take responsibility for that to an extent – modelled for more; there is room for more; there is budget for more,” he said.
“We have less than 10% of what the scheme can cover, so there is a lot more head room.”
The scheme facilitates the conversion from fossil fuel to renewable fuels, and provides operational support for biomass boilers and anaerobic digestion heating systems.
The workshop heard that the scheme would not be tailored for the dairy sector, which is far more suited to solar-panel energy generation as most of the heat for dairy is supplied by an immersion heater.
The SSRH aims to support businesses and farms for up to 15 years for the installation and ongoing use of biomass and anaerobic digestion heating systems.
The agri-related producers referred to above have received offers in the range of €8,000-€40,000 per year under the SEAI-administered scheme, he said.
Critical
Chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) Poultry Committee and poultry farmer, Nigel Sweetnam, however, was critical of the scheme.
Speaking from the floor, he stated:
“As farmers, we feel let down by the scheme – what it is versus the potential for it. It is beyond disappointing.”
He later told Agriland that the SSRH was something he had dreamed of for years, but that it needs to be simplified more for farmers.
The investment ceiling had deterred farmers from availing of it, and rules around financing the scheme were restrictive also, he said.
“The cost of a boiler my be €150,000, but retrofitting and changing of poultry houses from a conventional gas heating system could cost anything up to €120,000.”
SEAI’s Ray Langton admitted that the scheme was “difficult” in the past, but that is not the case now.
A demand-led policy
Bioenergy specialist, Barry Caslin from Teagasc, said when he got involved in researching this whole area back in 2007, most of the emphasis in Ireland was on growing energy crops, and developing a resource.
What existed then was supply-led policy but there was no demand-led policy, he said.
“There was a scheme by SEAI in 2006 and 2007 where there was a capital grant available for the installation of biomass boilers. But there wasn’t a massive uptake at the time.
“What we were waiting for was a demand-led policy, which we have today in the SSRH, so that is a welcome development in the whole area,” he said.
“We started promoting that scheme [the SSRH] two years ago but that coincided with a lot of challenges – Covid-19, as well as issues with the application process that have since been ironed out,” he said.
Making the transition to renewables has taken a long time and what is driving it now is fossil-fuel prices, he explained.
“We all knew that fossil-fuel prices would increase after Covid-19, that there would be surge in economies and there would be a demand for oil and gas but none of us anticipated what was going to happen in Ukraine and the impact that would have globally on oil and gas prices.”
The cost of kerosene and even if we will be permitted to use it in 10 years’ time are big questions, while gas and electricity prices are all on the rise. We need to start considering renewables as alternatives, and decarbonising the agricultural sector, he said.
“How do we reduce that dependance on fossil fuels, on coal, oil or gas? What technologies can we introduce to be more efficient? For example, the variable speed drive in the milking parlour, reducing the kWh hours by 50% in the milking process? That is an example of energy efficiency,” he pointed out.
And, biomass boilers and biomass heating are real options now too, he said.