TD pushes case for ‘untapped’ biogas potential

IRELAND needs to formulate a strategy on anaerobic digestion as a renewable energy source, a West Cork TD said.

Anaerobic digestion breaks down organic material into a biogas and low emissions organic fertiliser. Cork South West TD Christopher O’Sullivan has introduced legislation in the Dáil proposing a national strategy for anaerobic digestion for use in agricultural, industrial and domestic settings.

‘It’s an indigenous form of renewable energy that we should be using but we’re not using to its full potential,’ he said ‘As a country we’re struggling to move away from fossil fuels, which are contributing to climate change. There is an opportunity for sectors such as agriculture to use anaerobic digestion to contribute to emissions reductions.’

He cited the example of a medium-sized anaerobic digester in Timoleague which takes in 35,000 tonnes of waste material and converts it to a renewable gas.

‘It creates 500kWh of energy. That’s enough energy to power 1,000 homes. You can imagine if that’s scaled up the amount of emissions reductions we could achieve,’ Deputy O’Sullivan said.

‘It’s an excellent technology that’s been very well developed internationally. In Germany there’s 10,000 anaerobic digesters. We’ve less than 15 here. We’re way behind others internationally. That needs to change.’

Deputy O’Sullivan is party spokesperson on climate action, biodiversity, and environment.