Energy Masterplan: a sustainable future for Mullingar town

An ‘Energy Masterplan’ for Mullingar launched last week proposes a suite of solutions aimed at cutting energy usage in half – including the energy used in transport and in residential settings.

It also proposes investment of up to €1m in developing a regional skills academy to address the labour shortage in areas related to energy efficiency and retrofitting.

Commissioned by the Mullingar Sustainable Energy Community (MSEC) and funded by the Sustainable Energy Association of Ireland (SEAI), the plan was made public on Wednesday week last at a sustainable energy day hosted by Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) and the MSEC.

The document provides an action plan intended to help Mullingar become more energy efficient and reduce its carbon footprint over the next decade, targeting the residential, non-residential and transport sectors. It includes a ‘Register of Opportunities (RoO)’ – a list of projects – under the headings of behaviour, energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Among its suggestions are that the town make available for rent electric or ‘e-bikes’, charged from renewable energy, and also that a car club or vehicle-sharing scheme offer electric cars on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Even more significantly, it proposes establishing a ‘solar photovoltaic purchase club’, which might be able to negotiate group discounts where several homes come together to set up solar projects.

Residential

The plan states that the residential sector (8,812 homes) accounts for 47 per cent of the energy use in the Mullingar catchment area; the non-residential sector accounts for 29 per cent and 24 per cent of the energy usage is attributed to transport.

The plan says there is “cause for concern” at the heating methods used locally, stating that within the Mullingar catchment area, the main fuel types are currently oil and natural gas, which make up 70% of the total thermal energy consumed.

“Combined, these two fuel types make up 66% of the CO2 emissions from the residential sector. Oil is the primary source at 52%, which is typical for a large proportion of houses built pre-2011,” it says.

Retrofitting

Just 5% of the homes in the area with BER certs have a BER of B or greater, and just 1.6 per cent are at B2 or greater.

Referencing the government target of retrofitting half a million Irish homes to a B2 Building Energy Rating (BER) by 2030, the plan focuses on potential retrofitting plans for homes and says a realistic target over the next decade is to aim for at least 20% of the housing stock that does not fall into the bracket of ‘fuel poor’ to undertake a ‘medium depth retrofit’ in order to obtain a BER of at least B2 and for at least 30% of the housing stock that is deemed to be fuel poor to obtain a ‘deep retrofit’ in order to receive a BER of at least B2.

The plan finds that these measures would bring savings – respectively – of €728 and €1078 – per home annually.

However, while grant aid would bring the cost down, the estimated capital cost would amount to €35,000 per home for the medium depth retrofit and of €55,000 per home for the deep retrofit.

Training Centre

The plan points out that there is a labour and skills shortage in the construction sector at present, which it suggests could be helped through provision of appropriate courses and training at a Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) training programme through the Longford Westmeath Education Training Board, in line with what is happening in other ETBs around the country, including Laois Offaly which, the plan says, has established itself as a leader within Ireland for retrofit courses.

In its analysis of the non-residential sector, the plan suggests businesses use the new government website ClimateToolKit to get an estimate of their carbon footprint and a personalised action plan to reduce it.

To delve deeper, SEAI are currently running an energy audit scheme that offers SMEs a €2,000 voucher towards the cost of a high-quality energy audit.