Birr 20|20 Vision responded almost immediately in autumn 2019 when intimation of the early closure of Bord na Móna’s peat-based activities became current. A public meeting was held. It was well attended by concerned public representatives and it was evident that there was a significant absence of a worked-out plan about how to respond to the job losses that were going to occur. It was equally evident that there was a significant expectation that some kind of far-reaching response was going to be necessary. The matter remained on the agenda of each monthly meeting of Birr 20|20 Vision Directors until the last in-person meeting before Covid-19 lock-down in March 2020.
Immediately following that meeting steps were taken to convene a Reference Group. This group comprised key persons who together might be able to put flesh on what might be an appropriate community response in the context of what was beginning to emerge by way of a Just Transition programme to meet the job emergency (which at the time was being made more urgent by the loss of further jobs created by ESB’s decision to close power stations). Meeting regularly online the Reference Group reviewed what the possibilities for job-creation might be. They decided unanimously to pursue the suggestion from a member of the farming community that Anaerobic Digestion could well prove to be a potentially successful answer.
A successful application for a grant to research this possibility was made to the Just Transition fund. The application was in two parts, the first was to review an Anaerobic Digester plant as a practical proposition in the Birr neighbourhood. The second was to put in place an educational programme based at Gurteen College for those persons with a farming background who might wish to become involved in green energy crop production. Based on a public tendering process SLR Consulting, a British-based company, was the successful applicant for the review project. SLR began work in April 2021 and produced a report at the end of September 2021. The report advised that an Anaerobic Digester Plant in the Birr area had a real possibility of being a success and on that basis Birr 20|20 Vision decided to pursue the matter further.
Since the production of the report conversations have been held with local and national politicians; with local and national public and civil servants; with those charged with the development of a national strategy for the development of Anaerobic Digestion; with the owners of possible sites; with commercial operations interested in investing in Anaerobic Digestion plants and with Offaly Local Development Company who have agreed to provide financial support to engage with sectoral interests for whom an Anaerobic Digester would be a distinct advantage. Very recently conversations have commenced with a potential Anaerobic Digestion plant provider and operator which could lead to a joint partnership in which the role of Birr 20|20 Vision would be to represent community interests with the opportunity to develop employment opportunities based on the use of Anaerobic Digestion products.
What is Anaerobic Digestion that makes it a desirable activity at this time and in this place? Anything like a full answer to that question would require a measure of space not possible on this webpage. The simplest answer is to direct those interested to simply google – anaerobic digestion – which will take you immediately to a detailed history and explanation of the processes and to the elaboration of the benefits and products of those processes. From the perspective of an organisation like Birr 20|20 Vision, whose concern is the welfare of the society for whose betterment it exists, Anaerobic Digestion is a process which will facilitate the farming community to achieve the goals set out for that sector in the Climate Action Plan of Government and which, in addition, has the capacity to support a significant number of jobs at very different skills levels if the range of Anaerobic Digester products and opportunities are fully developed locally. Nationwide Anaerobic Digestion so developed could well play a major role in sustaining the rural economy of Ireland.
Click on the button below to view/download the Report Executive Summary.
