Madam, – While it was good to see acknowledgment of our report – the Mayo Energy Audit – in your article (“Funding shortfall may hinder wave energy”, April 15th), the article may have given the impression that our research points to coniferous forestry as Mayo’s best option for long-term biomass production.
By far the most viable biomass resource would be sustainably managed deciduous forestry and woodland. Of particular interest is medium-term rotation coppicing harvested on an eight- to 20-year cycle. This system of woodland management is adaptable to a wide variety of circumstances, and suits farm scale or local community scale operation. It would generate considerable employment and also has the added advantage of keeping money within local economies. In the long term the resource could provide over 50 per cent of Mayo’s heat energy requirements, and may contribute to electricity supply through small scale CHP (Combined Heat and Power).
Our research indicated that up to 9 per cent of existing farmland – mostly in the drier parts of the county – has immediate potential for deciduous woodland, without adversely affecting either livestock or crop production. However, the long lead time for deciduous woodland mitigates in favour of starting sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, Mayo has approximately 40,000 hectares of coniferous forestry, mostly State-owned. Until recently it was supplying the construction industry, but demand for pulpwood and construction-grade logs has plummeted over the last two years and is now close to zero. This underutilised resource, if harvested sensitively, could provide the annual energy equivalent of three to four times Mayo’s existing wind farms for the next two decades. Ideally, management of State-owned forestry would be undertaken by local forestry co-operatives working to strict environmental guidelines.
The Mayo Energy Audit has primarily attracted press interest for its blunt and perhaps unexpectedly pessimistic assessment of the wave energy resource, but the primary aim of the report remains to offer local and regional solutions to the looming global resource crisis. – Yours, etc,