Biomethane plant proposed for south Kildare
A Cycle0 Biomethane Plant in Lleida, Spain
THE COMPANY behind a proposed biomethane plant for south Kildare is to hold a community information meeting later this month.
Spanish firm CycleØ plan to build the plant at Ballyvass, halfway between Castledermot and Kilkea, as part of an ambitious €100m plan to finance, build, and operate four such sites in Kildare, Cavan, Galway and Limerick.
The company have announced a public meeting for the Clanard Hotel in Athy on Wednesday 19 February between 2-7pm.
The Kildare project is expected to produce in the region of 40GWh (Giga-Watt hours) per annum of biomethane from locally collected slurry, enough to be able to heat over 3,000 homes each year.
It would be the second biomethane plant in Co Kildare.
“The new biomethane plants will help support the Irish Government’s ambition to produce 5.7TWh [1,000x bigger than GWh] of indigenous biomethane by 2030,” said James Manley, CycleØ’s Irish country manager.
“There is no up-front cost to participate and, as CycleØ both owns and operates the plant, there is no financial risk for farmers working with the company,” he assured.
“The development of these projects will generate long-term additional revenue for local farmers [as] contracting to provide stock for the plants provides farmers with a solution to the long-term management of slurry,” said Mr Manley.
This won’t be the first such plant in the county, as farmer and businessman Billy Costello opened the first such biomethane unit at his farm in Nurney seven years ago.
Kildare is viewed favourably for such projects as there is a Bord Gais injection point into its national pipeline at Cush, between Kilberry and Kildangan on the main Monasterevin-Athy (R417) road.
The last government was keen to stimulate biomethane development nationally in order to meet greenhouse gas emission targets by 2030.
The National Biomethane Strategy adopted by the government intends to support the development of 150 to 200 such plants across the country with the state allocating €40m in grants towards the capital costs.
