Mr. Brendan Gildea:

I own Riverview Farm biogas. I am an organic dairy farmer from Dunmore, County Galway. I am married to Helen and we have five sons. My wife and two of my sons, James and Brendan, run a 230-cow unit and farm 550 acres. The other three sons, Tommy, Mike and Andy, also help part time on the farm. We have four milking robots for 24 years. My farm is the longest working robot farm in Ireland. We have been 18 years farming organically and have a nitrate figure of 160 without chemical fertiliser. We supply Aurivo with liquid organic milk all year round, producing 1.8 million litres. In 2005 I completed a certificate in renewable energy in the Tipperary Institute. I was very eager at the time to build an AD plant on my farm but due to lack of support from the Government it was not feasible to build.

When IrBEA started the small-scale biogas project in 2019, I applied to be one of the farmers to build a biogas system. This would make my farm become self-sufficient in power and heat and enhance the slurry and nutrients available on the farm. The system would use only slurry, straw bedding and waste silage from the farm. This would help me achieve a very sustainable farm for the future. I was successful in the application process and in 2023 I received planning permission from Galway County Council. We starting building in the spring of 2024. Ben Sage Tank Storage Systems, an Irish company, built the anaerobic digestion plant and my sons and I did most of the ground work. We have a MIC-MEC of 49 kVA onto the grid. The AD tank is 550 cu. m and has a retention time of 35 to 40 days. The CHP is able to produce 25 kW per hour during the summer and 40 kW during the winter. In April 2025 we started the CHP engine, which was witness-tested by the ESB on 24 April. We are still waiting for a smart meter to be installed. We have produced 90 MW of electricity to date and have exported over half of that electricity to the grid without payment. We received a 50% grant from the EIP and the Department of agriculture.

This project has been very successful. We have reduced our electricity bills to nearly zero and enhanced our slurry to help grow better yields of grass and crops, which is very important on an organic farm. I thank IrBEA, especially Seán Finan and Noel Gavigan, for their help.