Biomass production and use for fuelling the Bord na Mona electricity plants is seen as a “short-term” solution by well-known climatologist Prof. John Sweeney.

The Professor Emeritus of Geography at NUI Maynooth is of the view that more long-term solutions will have to be renewable energy going forward for the semi-state body.

Prof. Sweeney gave his views on Bord na Mona’s recent announcement of its intention to cease harvesting peat in 2025 and co-fire its plants using biomass fuels to AgriLand on the latest episode of FarmLand.

Speaking about the announcement, the professor said: “I think the fact that the closing date has been brought forward to 2025 is very productive, it’s very useful, and we have to welcome it.”

Prof. Sweeney noted that the decision reflects an awareness that current levels of peat burning can’t continue.

“Society simply won’t stand for burning our carbon store and paying €100 million a year in subsidy to do that.

Opportunities

“I think Bord na Mona are acting very sensibly here and recognising that the future lies in using the peatlands for other purposes other than simply burning for electricity generation.

“The redundancies which will happen will mostly be by natural wastage, but also there will be opportunities for using the peat bogs for other purposes, and I’m thinking in particular of things like renewable energy production, which Bord na Mona are now getting into increasingly.

So other economies will be opening up, other sources of employment will be opening up – and I wouldn’t see it as a death knell for the midlands of Ireland by any means.

“I think the big question now is in terms of whether the biomass that will be coming available will be domestically produced or imported.”

The professor noted that imported biomass is causing problems in other parts of the world, such as the US.

“The importing of wood for example from the southeastern United States is giving cause for concern to some of the residents there in terms of deforestation, so I think we can’t simply go on thinking we’ve solved our problems at the expense of creating one elsewhere.

“I think also that biomass has to be very carefully quantified in terms of its life cycle, in terms of the carbon emissions that it totally accounts for.

I would see perhaps biomass being a very short-term solution in this case for Bord na Mona with the longer-term solution being much more a move to renewable energy.

The professor noted that farmers got stung with miscanthus previously, and will be reluctant to go into similar ventures following such experiences.

“I think they’re going to be very cautious about getting into large-scale willow production, for example, which would be the other alternative I would see for biomass production.

Caution

“But I think above all we don’t want to start destroying our forest cover, our tree cover, simply to keep burning in a power station when there are other alternatives for electrical energy to be used in the years ahead.

“So again, I think it’s a short-term solution; maybe for a few years but I think we’ll have to look beyond that.”