Major energy savings on heating domestic and commercial buildings were outlined at a wood energy conference and demonstration day in Westport, Co Mayo on Wednesday 10 September. The conference took place in the Westport Woods Hotel, which is being heated using woodchip and wood pellets.

The 200 delegates attending the event jointly organised by Teagasc, SEI and COFORD, heard how converting the Teagasc office in Westport over to renewable wood fuel, has saved €1000 since the start of the year.

Dr Nuala Ni Fhlatharta, head of Forestry in Teagasc said: “This successful conference shows the major interest in wood energy as a clean, carbon-neutral and above all, home-grown source of renewable energy.”

Stephen O Sullivan from SEI told delegates that solid biomass is already the largest single source of renewable energy in Ireland, accounting for half of Ireland’s total renewable energy consumption.

Fuel costs comparisons presented by Ned Gaynor from Evergreen Energy Ltd showed that wood chip and wood pellet cost up to 30% less than either oil or gas as a fuel for heating buildings.

Teagasc forestry researcher Niall Farrelly explained that “Annual output from the private forestry sector has the potential to rise from its current level of just 100,000 cubic metres per annum, up to 1.1 million cubic metres per annum by 2015. He said that the recently formed timber producer groups across Ireland will facilitate the marketing of these large volumes of timber coming onto the market.”

In the afternoon delegates visited a local forest in Mayo for practical demonstrations, where Noel Kennedy, Teagasc forestry development officer spoke about harvesting timber and processing it into a valuable and highly efficient form of wood fuel.