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Gormley to push for carbon-zero homes
29 June 2008 By Nicola Cooke

Irish households use, on average, 31 per cent more energy than their European counterparts.

So, with an energy crisis looming, maybe it is time to learn some lessons from our less oil-dependent neighbours.

A Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) report published this month showed that average Irish households emit eight tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, and average household electricity use per person increased by 62 per cent from 1990 to 2006.

The sector accounted for just under a quarter of all the energy used in Ireland in 2006, and average household energy bills are €1,767 (with the ESB looking for another 30 per cent increase).

Environment minister John Gormley plans to develop ‘‘carbon zero’’ public housing - that emits no energy but creates it onsite - and is also looking at introducing higher energy standards for new non-domestic buildings nationwide.

He is to travel to Freiburg, Germany, to examine how the eco districts there have produced a 13 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the last 11 years.

Regulations for the building of new homes here, which will make them 40 per cent more energy efficient, come into force next month.

Eco districts in Germany and Sweden have been developed over the last two decades. They include buildings made from recycled or renewable materials, pooling bicycles and cars in communities, the use of biogas - generated from incinerators that burn waste - to run public transport, and motorway tunnels and stadiums lit by solar panel energy.

Carbon-zero homes generate energy, rather than emit it, through various sustainable measures such as inserting solar panels and wind energy generators onsite to heat water and provide electricity.

They are between 2 and 4 per cent more expensive to build than average new homes, local municipalities in Germany and Sweden have shown.

Addressing the annual European Construction Industry Federation conference at Dublin Castle recently, Gormley said a government energy research group was examining how newly-built public, private and commercial buildings could be made more efficient.

Professor Owen Lewis, UCD professor of architectural science and the director of the energy research group, said the buildings did not have to be ‘‘overly expensive’’.

‘‘All the studies show that, if you invest in construction, you will recoup the investment in a short period through energy efficiency,” he said.

Gormley’s spokesman said a pilot programme of carbon-zero homes would be developed as part of the public housing programme.

It was too early, he said, to decide where they would be or how many houses would be constructed.

‘‘Clonburris in west Dublin is already a sustainable development zone, and more of these are being created under national policy. Minister Gormley is a strong proponent of this type of development,” he said.

However, there are others who believe it will take a major energy crisis for Irish policymakers and citizens to take corrective action.

Philip McNamara, founder of Inspire Nation, recently hosted a delegation of Irish developers, politicians and state transport providers to Freiburg. Inspire Nation helps companies and government bodies to identify and overcome challenges.

‘‘The success behind the eco districts in Germany is that you can make a good return on the generation of electricity by selling it back to the grid at a great price,” McNamara said. The German government has recently passed a law that guarantees 48 cent per kwh (kilowatt hour) for solar energy.

‘‘We met a lady who receives a cheque for €400 a month from the equivalent of the ESB. Even those who don’t sell on that much extra power have annual energy bills of €200 a year,” he said.

McNamara said most of our European neighbours were equipped for an energy crisis because of public transport systems that served large masses of people, but that this was not the case in Ireland.

‘‘Our public transport cue was taken from the US with the use of private cars and motorways, but it is the European model and the electrification of trains and trams that we urgently need to work towards now,” he said.