Mr. Se?n Finan:

On behalf of the Irish BioEnergy Association, IrBEA, we thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to present to the committee. The association was established in 1999 as the representative body for the bioenergy sector on the island of Ireland. Our membership spans the sustainable bioenergy sectors of biomass, biogas, biofuels, biochar, energy crops and wood fuels. Our biogas biomethane members cover the full supply chain, including farmers, feedstock suppliers, developers, technology providers and energy users. IrBEA is an active member of the European Biogas Association.

Anaerobic digestion technology is a proven technology used worldwide at different scales. The potential feedstocks in Ireland are many, including but not limited to slurry and farm wastes; grass and silage, including clover and multi-species swards grown without chemical fertiliser; food waste; green horticulture waste; organic residues and wastes; sludges; meat and dairy processing residues; and other wastes. Anaerobic digestion can be deployed at different scales. Our membership spans the different scales possible, from micro scale, which involves the processing of domestic food waste to produce biogas for cooking use, to small scale, which takes place on farm or at a business premises where it offsets an existing fossil-based demand. IrBEA’s work at this scale is being advanced through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine-funded European Innovation Partnership small biogas demonstration programme project. This project is providing a capital support to three farmers to build three biogas plants on their farms utilising on-farm wastes and feedstocks. These projects are currently at the planning process stage and will soon move to construction. There are interesting developments arising from the learnings from the project.

At a medium-to-large scale, or co-operative style, feedstocks are sourced from many different suppliers, with the energy output supplied to a grid or distribution network either on or off grid. This scale needs an ongoing support in the form of a tariff or obligation scheme etc. to be economically viable.

Biogas production is mainstream across Europe, with more than 20,000 operational AD plants in the EU and several million across the world. Favourable policy measures are driving the development of the industry across Europe. France is currently commissioning three to four biomethane plants per week and Denmark has a policy whereby a percentage of its slurry resource must be diverted to AD. Those are only two examples of policy measures in the EU. Ireland is far behind its EU counterparts in terms of policy development, with approximately 20 AD plants currently in operation here.

In 2017, a European Commission report entitled Optimal Use of Biogas from Waste Streams: An Assessment of the Potential of Biogas from Digestion in the EU Beyond 2020 identified that Ireland had the largest potential for growth in biogas production. Anaerobic digestion complements existing strategies such as the farm to fork strategy. The recent REPowerEU report sets a target of 35 billion cu. m of biomethane by 2030. There is a significant opportunity for Ireland to contribute to this and a dedicated Irish AD policy is required to maximise the opportunity. However, the gap between the cost of production and the market return has closed in recent times with the increase in fossil gas prices. This cost gap must be bridged through policy, support, incentives and measures.

The lack of progress in developing the industry is a missed opportunity for Ireland Inc. The technology has many benefits, including energy security, decarbonising our dairy processing and co-operative sector, decarbonising transport, electricity and heat, providing alternative farm enterprises, reducing emissions from agriculture, potentially reducing the size of the national herd through farmers instead producing grass which is fertilised by digestate, digestate displacing the use of chemical fertiliser, enhancing biodiversity, developing the circular and bioeconomy and improving water quality.

I will hand over to my colleague, Mr. Noel Gavigan, who will outline aspects in further detail.