Lack of Government support 'is costing jobs'

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS:A LEADING IRISH supplier and installer of small-scale renewable energy systems has turned to the UK to expand his business, claiming that the lack of a feed-in tariff or government support for the industry here is contributing to job losses in energy-intensive and large electricity-using small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) who cannot gain the same energy cost advantages as their foreign competitors.

“In industries such as food and agriculture, being able to reduce and fix electricity costs could be the difference between an Irish company surviving or going out of business, with all the consequences that has for the wider economy,” says Paul Carberry, a director of Baltinglass-based Renewable Energy Systems (RES).

“For example, the number of Irish mushroom growers has fallen from 400 to about 60 in recent years. In many cases, UK producers who availed of a feed-in tariff and fixed their costs have taken their market share, in contrast to their Irish counterparts who cannot do so.

“Numerous SMEs I speak to every week have rising input costs while profit margins are being squeezed. They’re terrified an increase in energy bills could put them out of business.”

Among recent Irish projects that RES has worked on is a 20kw solar installation on the roof of a SuperValu in Baltinglass, which has attracted interest from a number of other supermarkets.

The project is only viable because solar panel prices have halved in the past 18 months and qualify for a capital allowance tax break.

The supermarket will use all the power generated, but if a feed-in tariff existed it could justify a 50kw installation that could act as a solar energy generating hub for the local community.

In the UK, RES recently installed a 1,000-panel, 250kw installation for one of Tesco’s egg suppliers. Availing of the recently reduced solar production feed-in tariff there, the company has fixed its electricity costs for the next 20 years and its bank financed the €500,000 cost of it.

Despite the lack of government support for such projects here, the Irish Micro Energy Generation Association and researchers at DIT are investigating the viability of community smart grids.

Already operating in Europe, these consist of a 5mw interconnected grid on which biomass-fuelled combined heat and power systems, anaerobic digesters powered by food and farm waste would supply a small network of homes and businesses.