The 1981 UN Conference in Nairobi on 'New and Renewable Energy Sources'

With the money raised by organising the conference, the IUNA was able to fund the participation of the present writer in the UN conference, a memorable experience, some aspects of which I have recorded below. I give first a brief outline of the Irish contributions, as recorded in the IUNA conference proceedings.

Preface by Sean MacBride, President of the Irish United Nations Association

Our failure to foresee and to forestall obvious and inevitable problems is an unceasing source of surprise. Everybody has known for a long time that resources of oil as a fuel and source of energy were not unlimited; everybody has known for a long time that the consumption of oil was increasingly rapidly. Therefore everybody should have known for a long time that it was essential to find and develop alternative sources of energy. Little, however, was done to find and develop alternative sources of renewable energy.

Very powerful multi-national corporations with the backing of the industrial military establishments throughout the world then sought to avail of this situation to promote uranium mining and nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy. It took some time before it was fully appreciated that the substitution of uranium and nuclear energy as an alternative to oil had many drawbacks. In the first place, it would make the world dependent for the supply of energy upon another raw material, the supply of which was not unlimited. In the second place, the utilisation of nuclear energy would inevitably become linked with the production of nuclear weapons; this would add gravely to the proliferation and the increase of nuclear arsenals in the world. Luckily, many other factors, such as safety, economic viability of nuclear plants, and the disposal of nuclear waste helped to stem the artificially created enthusiasm for the substitution of uranium and nuclear energy for oil and coal.

High powered propaganda and salesmanship very nearly persuaded our own establishment in Ireland to push the country into the adoption of nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy. Luckily, a healthy and informed public opinion reacted vigorously against this trend. It was realised that there were many other sources of renewable energy available to us, and indeed to many other countries of the world which were not being adequately availed of. These included:

Solar energy,
Wind energy,
Wave and Tidal energy,
Peat, Biomass, and Timber.

The 'Peat' hotlink leads to a report of the 7th International Peat Conference which took place in Dublin in 1984; I have a copy of the Proceedings, and I did this paper for publication in Mazingira, an international environmentalist journal.

These were all freely available to us in varying degrees. But they had no powerful transnational financial interests to promote them. It is in these circumstances that the United Nations, with constructive foresight, took the initiative of convening the World Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy, which was held in Nairobi in August 1981. As soon as the United Nations had taken the decision to convene the world conference at Nairobi, the Irish United Nations Association took the initiative in convening a preparatory conference in Dublin so that Ireland would be in a position to make constructive contributions to this great world problem.

The Irish United Nations Association had two main objectives in convening this Preparatory Conference in Dublin :

1. To focus attention of all relevant sectors of Irish life as to the urgency of developing new and renewable sources of energy, and to ensure that Ireland would make a useful input an these problems at the Nairobi Conference.

2. To facilitate and encourage the closest possible collaboration between the governmental and non-governmental, scientific, academic, and economic, sectors of our community in the preparation of an Irish contribution to the United Nations Conference.

The Preparatory Conference was duly held, through the hospitality of Carroll's Theatre, in Dublin on 13 May 1981. It was a most useful and constructive conference in which all those involved in the production of energy, both in the private and public sector, participated actively. In this connection, great tribute must be paid to both Mr Terence Gavaghan and to Dr RHW Johnston for the input which they both made in the preparations for the Preparatory Conference, and in the follow up.It was their untiring energy and organising ability that ensured the success of the Preparatory Conference.

As a result of the Preparatory Conference we found it possible to be represented at the United Nations World Conference in Nairobi by Dr RHW Johnston. His contribution at the Conference itself, and the many contacts which he made there, have proved of very considerable value.

It would be difficult to list all those persons and organisations who have contributed to the success of the Preparatory Conference which we held here in Dublin and who ensured that Ireland was fully represented at the Nairobi Conference; however, I should mention in particular the following:

* The World Bank, The UN University, The UN Department of Economic and Social Information who generously funded the Dublin Conference;

-* The Co-ordinating Committee (under my Chairmanship) which consisted of:

Mr Terence Cavaghan (IUNA)
Mr Brian Hurley (SESI)
Mr Tim Cahill O'Brien (IDA)
Mr Stephen Tracey (ICTU)

Lastly, 1 should like to say that the Irish United Nations Association deserve great credit for the initiative which it took in this matter. This is an example of the useful and constructive role which the Irish United Nations Association can play in the co-ordination of efforts between the Governmental and Non-Governmental sectors of our society.

The following text was circulated in April 1981 to a widely representative group of people and organisations with actual or potential interest in renewable energy work.

Background

'...elaborating measures for concerted actions designed to promote the development and utilization of new and renewable sources of energy, with a view to contributing to meeting future over-all energy requirements. especially those of the developing countries, in particular in the con- text of efforts aimed at accelerating the development of the developing countries...'. (UN Resolution 331148)

The UN Conference itself will deal with 14 new and renewable sources of energy. Participation in the Conference is limited to official representatives from member States, organisations of the United Nations system, and inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Objectives of Preparatory Conference in Ireland

(1) to ensure that interested organisations and the Irish public are made aware of the scope of the UN Conference in Nairobi;

(2) to ensure that the NBST paper to be presented in Nairobi is backed by appropriate supplementary briefing material, particularly where Irish experience has relevance to developing countries.

Programme/Structure of Preparatory Conference

A selection of technologies will be dealt with in more depth, particularly in those cases where it is considered that there is already, or could rapidly be developed, an export trade in technology (including services) or equipment. The technologies selected are : peat, biomass, wind, wave, direct solar (thermal, photovoltaic), and hydro-electric.

Finally, time will be devoted to analysing the role of existing State, Semi-State and other structures and agencies concerned with technology transfer, export promotion and job generation, against the background of positive opportunities presented by the energy crisis and the needs of developing countries.

Attendance

Conference Finance

All participants (whether they contribute a paper or not) are invited to make a contribution towards the expense of a non-governmental participant attending the Nairobi Conference with the background briefing which emerges from this Conference. A suitably qualified person will be proposed for acceptance by the Conference.

It is envisaged that a sum of not less than £1,500 will be required to fund a Conference delegate without taking into account contingent expenses. A minimum contribution of £15 from those contributing papers and of £25 from non-contributors is therefore required.

The response to the above text, in terms of contributed papers and attendance, was considerable; the 1970s energy crises were fresh in the public memory. I summarise this below; there is no point in giving the papers in full, as the proceedings are available, and anyway they would need updating in the light of subsequent developments.

Norman L Brown, former energy adviser to UNAID, in a keynote paper have a global overview of the energy scene, with particular reference to developing countries. He stressed the high proportion of energy which was dependent on firewood, and the consequent threat to forests. He made the link between fossil fuels, atmospheric CO2 and global warming, the relationship between which were already common knowledge in the scientific community.

Dr Keith W Robinson, of the National Board for Science and Technology, over-viewed the Irish contribution to the UN conference. Giving a passing reference to peat, an effectively non-renewable resource, in terms of the forestry potential of cutaway bog, he gave priority attention to wind and biomass, and mentioned wave and tidal power, small-scale hydro, geothermal and direct solar conversion, in all of which areas research was ongoing, though on a small-scale. He stressed the importance of energy system analysis in the context of selection of strategic options. Overall Irish work in this field was poorly developed and needed attention.

This concluded the overview section. I continue with some notes on the contributed papers, which were given in the proceedings at the level of one-page abstracts; I have further abbreviated these.

Contributed Papers

Brian Hurley (Bolton St College of Technology) and Annraoi de Paor (UCD) reviewed the field experience of the Wind Panel of the Solar Energy Society, which was mostly with 10kW systems as rural heat sources. Dudley Stewart contributed some commercial experience of the production of this type of equipment.

Professor GT Wrixon and Dr SB McCarthy (UCC) outlined an approach to powering a dairy installation with photo-voltaic cells, at the 50kW level. Owen Lewis (UCD Architecture) outlined various approaches to solar energy applications at the domestic level. Ian Cowan (IIRS) reported on heat pump work.

There were three papers on mini-hydro topics, from Richard Flaherty on run-of-the-river schemes, Paddy Belton (who manufactured mini-turbines), and BM Kelly on modular design.

There were peat papers from J Cooke and J Martin, both of Bord na Mona. Short-rotation forestry was covered by Dr Michael Neenan of the Agricultural Institute (Oakpark, Carlow) and Dr Trevor Gibbons of TCD, who outlined approaches to the techno-economic analysis of production systems (to which work the present writer had earlier contributed). Michael Jones of TCD (Botany) outlined tropical biomass options, and Jerry Healy reported on some EEC-funded biomass developed using cutaway bog as site. Chris Shouldice (Agricultural Institute) surveyed liquid fuels from biomass sources, including rapeseed oil. Frank Lunny went into biomass combustion problems in boilers.

There were contributions from Dr CT Isolani (the United Nations University European representative) outlining the global research position, and from several Irish-based institutions with an interest in export of knowhow: Michael O'Donnell for HEDCO (Higher Education for Development Co-operation), Michael Maloney for DEVCO the state agency export development service, Bill Jackson for APSO (Agency for Personal Services Abroad), Tim Cahill O'Brien for IDA (Industrial Development Authority), and Gerry Murphy for Coras Tractala the export trade promotion agency.

This completes the listing of the contributions; one can perhaps comment in retrospect on the nature and extent of the co-ordination problem if we were to 'get our act together' in an energy crisis situation. The present writer at the time made an effort in this direction. In what follows he gave an outline of some conclusions reached as a result of the preliminary Irish conferences, followed by some conclusions reached following the experience of the Nairobi conference itself.

Chapter 4: Summary and Conclusions

Renewable Energy Technologies

It is appropriate to supplement this message by a reference to current UNIDO policy, which is to collaborate with FAO on the production of wood-based charcoal for industrial purposes, including smelting (cf Rome meeting 15-16 January 1979). This technology. if successfully introduced into tropical countries having forest reserves, could sound the death-knell of the latter. The primeval forest of Ireland was largely wiped out in the 17th and 18th centuries by smelting with charcoal, if it had not already been plundered in the interests of the British Navy. Modern charcoal production involves pyrolysis of wood, with gas and oil as by-products, these also being fit for local industrial energy and transportation needs. It can be an efficient process and is seriously under consideration as one of the energy conversion options for use with managed biomass plantations in developed countries. If this technology is unleashed in developing countries lacking energy other than forest reserves, it could be a recipe for world ecological disaster, unless accompanied by a massive re-forestation programme.

The central importance of the managed biomass plantation as renewable energy source cannot therefore be over-emphasised. In this field, the combined experience of Dr Michael Neenan at Oakpark and Mr Jerry Healy at Bord na Mona is highly relevant, together with the experience of the Sugar Company in designing and producing harvesting machinery which produces firewood-size chunks from coppiced hardwood plantations in a single operation. There is therefore a considerable scope for an organised Irish export of knowhow in biomass energy production systems, both dispersed (for rural domestic supply) and concentrated (to service UNIDO-type industrial energy projects), including combustion and thermal energy conversion technology.

Peat technology tends to be somewhat site-specific. It overlaps with biomass in that in some cases (eg papyrus) the possibility exists of harvesting the current annual production, while in other cases the accumulated biomass, when removed, can be replaced by a renewable system There is export potential in both cases for special-purpose harvesting machinery, or the knowhow for its local production.

Biomass, like peat production, is very site-specific. In this context, biomass does not only refer to short or long rotation forestry but to non-woody biomass which may be more suitable under some conditions. Examples of non-woody biomass are sugar cane and beet production on agricultural-quality land and papyrus in more marginal areas. The guiding principle for biomass production should be high yielding renewable resources occupying land not required or unsuitable for food production.

The viability of biomass and peat as a source of energy depends on the utilisation of their end products. It is here that there is considerable export potential for briquette making machinery (for use with both peat and non-woody biomass) and forest harvesting machines for coppiced forests.

Questioning the thermal efficiency of 'wet' processes, Mr J Kelleher (Owen Kenny & Partners) pointed out that power alcohol production from molasses, a waste by-product (except where it can be used as cattle feed) from raw cane sugar manufacture, was providing a substitute for petrol in certain Third World countries. However, about 75% of the energy realisable in the power alcohol had to be provided by the fuel input to the distillation process. If, however, the 'stillage' or 'vinasse' from the distillery were to be digested anaerobically, this could provide methane as a fuel for the distillery, meeting a proportion of the fuel needs and allowing for combined heat and power generation. The vinasse is moreover of high B0D (30,000 - 45,000 ppm). The reduction of the B0D by anaerobic digestion is thus most desirable. The anaerobic filter of Dunican and Newell of University College Galway is particularly suitable to this type of effluent and could provide a solution to a problem up to now intractable except in terms of high capital cost.

In photovoltaics, the design and construction of a 50 kW pilot power station near Cork will enable valuable systems experience to be gained in a pre-economic full-scale operation, during the period immediately prior to the mass-production of low-cost photo cells.

In the capture of diffuse solar energy, despite the adverse seasonality factor, there were indications that solar panel technology was already cost-effective in new housing. Valuable experience in test facilities, collector surface research and system modelling existed, as well as monitoring of systems on site. If this were included with the meteorological service data-gathering and mapping experience, and passive solar architectural design principles, there would be all the elements of a useful exportable knowhow package.

In wind energy, the elements of a viable system exist. In the State sector the ESB is gaining direct experience with four installation. in the range of 10-120 kW (grid-linked), while the Agricultural Institute, on behalf of the Department of Energy, is concerned with four stand-alone installations in the range 1-10 kW, two of which involve conversion to electricity. Also there is a 30 kW diesel-linked system on Inis Oirr, run by the Department of Energy directly. In the private sector. Alternative Energy Limited is in a position to produce systems for the market at a price which is reasonably competitive and likely to improve as volume grows. There is R&D support from the University College Dublin group under Professor Annraoi de Paor, and from Bolton Street College of Technology (Brian Hurley).

In the field of small-scale hydro-systems, similarly, the elements of a viable system exist between the ESB, Belton Engineering Limited (which produces small robust turbines),and Autotron Services (Consultant application engineers). The latter foresee an Irish mini-hydro industry using a cost effective standardised micro hydro turbine and are finalising the design of a hydro pneumatic turbine (compressed air system) claimed to be half the cost of a hydro electric set.

The Potential for Viable Organisation of Technology Transfer

From both bodies there was indication of the existence of a shortage of skilled personnel. For APSO (Agency for Personal Service Abroad) the supply-side bottlenecks related to the limited funds available for development co-operation work, and to some negative feedback, particularly in the agricultural context, on the value set by Irish employers on the Third World experience of the returning development worker seeking re-employment in Ireland.

in some other State-sponsored bodies the bottleneck expressed itself in the view, which is apparently not challenged by top management, that overseas work is a diversion from their real work at home. This view is currently being challenged by the IDA, which has initiated a philosophy of re-deployment of manpower along the following lines:

1) Take experienced middle managers and specialists having exportable skills and set them up in specialist units seeking to earn revenue by selling knowhow abroad;

2) Recruit to junior positions and promote others to fill the jobs vacated;

3) Promote this philosophy in top management by taking steps to familiarise them with the importance of the export work done to date.

This philosophy of manpower planning represents a complete reversal of the traditional system whereby surplus youth were exported and those in established positions viewed those coming after them as a threat. If adopted, the positive effects on the national psyche are likely to be considerable. It has already been adopted within IDA itself, in that Mr Tim Cahill O'Brien's own unit is working in the new mode, and his old job has been filled. No significant money is needed, simply a change of policy.

Another example is the ESB, which assigns a high corporate priority to overseas consultancy and where there is a high-level management centre responsible only for consultancy. The ESB's policy on consultancy staffing is to assign to such work experienced people of proven capability and performance, and to make good any deficiency by promotion/recruitment for its domestic activities.

This change of policy would need to extend to the Government Departments behind the various semi-State agencies; there is evidence of lack of support, eg reluctance to allow CTT (the export promoting body) to pay fares for Bord na Mona staff when abroad seeking export contracts; this promotional overhead is carried by Bord na Mona itself as a matter of policy, giving rise to understandable reluctance to engage in travel abroad unless invited by a potential client.

Similarly, the Department of Education could actively encourage experienced teachers to take sabbaticals abroad, thus expanding the demand in Ireland for young teachers. At present, young teachers who go abroad via APSO when they return find themselves without credit for experience.

What appears to be emerging is a concept of co-operation between Irish development agencies in a marketing programme on behalf of (semi-State) specialist exporters of knowhow backed by 3rd-level education services.

Each 'knowhow export unit' could be associated with an outer circle of suppliers, consultant engineers, contractors etc, providing the latter with an acceptable focal point for export work. For example, the ESB, if it were to decide to set up a special-purpose subsidiary to develop wind and mini-hydro both on the home market and for export, could act as focus for the R&D people, the turbine and wind system suppliers, the control system and grid interface suppliers etc, the whole adding up to a new systems approach to local low-cost 'mini-grids' as development co-operation projects. If the subsidiary had the necessary autonomy, it could consider transmission or 'grid' systems other than electrical (eg compressed air, gas or whatever).

Such an enterprise would also generate a demand for imported 'state-of-the-art' knowhow in the field of energy storage (e g hydrogen-based systems etc), thus stimulating local R&D. It could also relate to the Cork photovoltaic systems work, which could credibly constitute another component of the system.

These contacts already exist at the personal level: the necessary policy step is to structure them in entrepreneurial mode, under the wing of tile ESB (in the above instance).

The same model would probably work for Bord na Mona/AFT in biomass and peat; in this case it could be a joint venture and could involve the Sugar Company as an important supplier of equipment, as well as various civil engineering firms. There are parts of the world where peat exists but is not locally recognised as an energy source, being regarded simply as a problem soil. To develop such a market requires promotion of the type that in the private sector automatically gets CTT support. Such promotion could be provided through APSO, which has funded volunteer technical assistance and consultancy assignments of Irish development workers to governments, parastatals and universities in the Third World. APSO declared its interest in extending this to areas of acknowledged Irish strength in the new and renewable energy sources area.

Policies for bringing this new concept to a practical level require to be formulated nationally, so that a coherent framework involving the relevant institutions can be produced. The most likely source of initiative for this is the National Board for Science and Technology, in view of its key role in providing a national focal point for the Nairobi Conference.

Under the stimulus of the Preparatory Conference, it soon became evident that the structural and organisational changes suggested had begun to take place; some contacts set up at Nairobi have already been taken up profitably in the national interest, as well as in the interest of development co-operation.

The Nairobi Conference

1) To keep in touch with the Government delegation and to exchange relevant information during the course of the Conference.

2) To seek informally to cultivate contacts with new and renewable energy experts in other countries, both developed and developing.

3) To ensure that the experience of the Nairobi Conference is appropriately made available in Ireland to those working in the field and to the relevant agencies concerned.

The following section summarises the Nairobi experience:

Chapter 5: The Nairobi Conference: Summary and Conclusions

Accordingly, this section consists primarily of a guide to the Appendices.

I have not abstracted the actual appendices, the content of which is dated. What follows should be seen as as an exercise in techno-economic lobbying in the social interest.

The Nairobi Action Programme is available in full as a UN publication; copies can be ordered through the NBST Energy Division (Dr Keith Robinson), or through the Department of Foreign Affairs (Mr Conor Murphy). Extracts of the programme have been collected in Appendix 1; the sections which seem to the author to be of relevance for Ireland have been picked out, with their section numbers explicit. This represents an international political document to which the Irish Government, along with all other UN members, subscribes. It can therefore be referred to in the preamble of any proposal for project funding in the renewable energy field, as a reminder of the explicit government position. This constitutes a constructive outcome from the conference.

It is however noteworthy (see Appendix 1 p16) that UN funding for renewable energy projects has not been provided for in the form of a specialist agency. There is to be set up a unit in the Secretary General's office charged with co-ordinating the work of the other principal agencies (FAO, UNIDO, UNEP) in the renewable energy field. This will report to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council. This outcome was a result of stonewalling by the United States and took place despite pressure by the 'Group of 77' (the developing countries); the net effect of the proposed structure is to impose a filter dominated by the industrialised countries of the Northern hemisphere. To some, this defines the conference as a failure, in that no strong mechanism has emerged for 'north-south' transfer of resources dedicated to renewable energy work.

Despite this negative formal conclusion, it is possible to evaluate the outcome of the conference positively on the following grounds:

1) By analogy with the UN Environmental Conference in Stockholm in 1971 (as a result of which world environmental consciousness increased considerably and there was an active period of national legislation), it is to he expected that renewable energy projects and systems will become increasingly respectable and credit-worthy within national states as the basis of bilateral aid programmes, and as candidates for investment by development agencies such as the World Bank; also for the investment of surplus oil revenues from the OPEC countries.

2) A mass of techno-economic data has been generated, which is available summarised in some of the key technical reports which form a background to the Programme of Action (see Appendix 3 pp l&2 for titles and references).

3) Networks have been set up among non-governmental organisations, and between the latter and key governmental contact-points, which are likely to lead to significant opportunities for increased funding for renewable energy work in one form or another.

4) The status and role of relevant NGOs in the UN decision-making procedure has emerged strengthened and with enhanced experience.

5) There is emerging an embryonic appreciation of the common interest between the disarmament lobby (which is active in 'east-west' UN negotiations which are centred in Geneva) and the 'orderly energy transition' lobby which has initially been focused at Nairobi. It is increasingly evident that the resources soaked up in the arms race, if diverted towards the energy transition problem, would enable the latter to he resolved within a decade or two. At Nairobi, this emerged strongly from the NGO people (who were all 'south' and 'west'; there were no 'eastern' NGOs in the political sense) and also from the 'eastern' governmental delegations. These two political forces, however, showed no signs of being aware of each other, though they were saying the same thing.

6) There is an enhanced understanding of the crucial role of local energy availability in the development process; the concept of the 'autonomous community renewable energy centre' as the development-focus for the future has gained respectability and now ranks in importance comparable with traditional large-scale centralised urban-based systems, particularly where 'national grids' are non-existent.

Appendix 2 gives the NGO consensus as it emerged early in the third week of the conference. It was timed so as theoretically to have some impact on the final drafting of the Action Programme; in fact however, it seems to have had little, though its status can be regarded as an improvement on that of the NGO lobby at previous conferences. In proportion as it becomes known, it will perhaps stimulate people to ask their governments 'what was your position on this or that point, and why wasn't it taken up in the Action Programme?'. It is reprinted here with that in mind.

Appendix 3 gives a list of the documentation which was picked up by the writer and is currently available in 18 Westland Row (the TCD Industrial Liaison Office) for consultation.

The various publications can be removed and retained by the members of the 'Nairobi NGO support group' (ie those who financed the writers presence there) with the following priority ranking (implying level of support):

The ESB; TCD Departments of Statistics and Computer Science; members of the Irish Preparatory Conference Committee; participants in the Irish Preparatory Conference. The writer undertakes to keep a record of the ultimate location of the documentation listed, so that in principle it will be available to all supporters.

In conclusion, it is worth while placing on record that the Irish governmental contingent consisted of a 'front-line' group (Mr Conor Murphy, Department of Foreign Affairs; Dr Owen O'Neill, Department of Energy; Dr Keith Robinson (National Board for Science and Technology) backed up by a support group consisting of Mr Scan Tinney (ESB), Mr Maurice Keane and Mr Val Martin (Bord na Mona) and Mr Tim Cahill O'Brien (IDA).

The objectives of the support group were promotional, and significant success was achieved (a) by the ESB/Bord na Mona team in selling 'electricity from peat' technology (b) by the IDA in selling a crash-course in renewable energy technology assessment. In addition to the above, the writer has set up some contacts which could lead to the establishment of postgraduate programmes in renewable energy systems engineering, on a collaborative basis between Irish and Third World universities. Such a training programme should he in a position to attract such finance as does become available for the promotion of 'north-south' technology transfer procedures on the higher education net work. Members of the 'Irish Nairobi NGO support group' (and indeed all renewable energy specialists) are welcome to keep in contact with this development, particularly if they are in a position to contribute practical supervision of student projects on site.

On the whole, the impact of this conference was minimal; oil prices declined, and the sense of urgency evaporated. The various people went their separate ways. In retrospect, however, it must be said that the conclusions were valid, and remain valid to this day. Wind energy in Ireland is beginning to become a significant source, belatedly. In Denmark they took it seriously in the 1980s and they now export standardised wind-turbines to service the wind-farms of the world. On the whole, we can perhaps claim to be creative innovators and adapters, but must admit to being weak on the organised follow-through.

The Aran Islands

On the Inis Oirr wind-generator I had heard that '...it was getting very low utilisation, and much of its energy when in use was warming the seagulls via its ballast-load. Yet storage-inversion systems on the 100kW scale are decidedly 'on', in that Wrixon is using one for his solar dairy in Cork. So I ask myself why don't we look at the Inis Mean scene from the angle of import-substitution, starting with electricity? Get a Danish system and link it with a storage-inversion system, using the diesel as standby. With a system like this the island could become a test-bed for various ways of handling renewable energy technology on a village scale; this knowhow should become exportable...'.

I went on to talk about substituting coal with wood in various forms, and on developments towards the quality food industry, using the Viney experience of sheltered horticulture. I stressed the importance of links with the Galway RTC and the Carraroe comprehensive school, and the need for a ferry linking the islands with the nearby mainland routinely. I was feeling my way towards creating a job for myself in the area of diverting research resources towards adding value to locally available resources. I considered '..adapting myself to your situation, doing a Fennell but in the technological rather than in the verbal culture... as someone who was alive to the problem and trying to steer resources in your direction..'.

I visited Inis Mean in the last week of August 1985, and picked up a first-hand feel for the variety of development problems which Tarlach de Blacam faced. I considered applying for the job, but in the end recommended that they should look for someone with an appropriate RTC diploma, in agricultural engineering or with a marine component. If they were unable to find anyone I said I would consider it again in about October. I suggested that they needed a shed and maintenance workshop for machinery, and that the repairs on the pier might be carried out using voluntary labour, with payment in co-op equity, so that the co-op would end up owning it. I suggested using the waste heat from the diesel generator in CHP mode. I went into the question of not only wind generation but also coppiced hardwood as energy sources. The existing willow plots that had been cultivated for basketry and had been neglected could become a starting-point by adapting the pruning procedures, and feeding the output to a tractor-driven mobile chipper. I went on to consider milk, cheese, seafood, horticulture, thatching (for which the revival was then beginning on the mainland) and small-scale brewing (the 'real ale' movement). I went in to the possibilities of an 'open university' approach to learning, using satellite TV, and interacting with the TV production process cultivating the locally available expertise of people like Bob Quinn.

Regrettably I did not get the chance to follow up on this encounter, and I did not in the end apply for the job, due to linguistic inadequacy, and to inexperience in the types of commercial skills necessary for survival in the undergrowth of the informal economy. If I had been younger at the time I might have taken the plunge. There is perhaps an echo here of my father's visit to Mayo in 1966, which he wrote up in his 'Irish Economic Headaches'.

Crumlin Lignite

Roy H W Johnston (22/12/85

Draft 3; as amended subsequent to meeting with VJP Poots on 19/12 and W Scally on 14/1/86.

Background

The Electricity Supply Board wanted at one stage to reduce its peat usage in favour of cheap imported coal, running down the peat stations. This however was found to present political difficulties, and the peat stations remain in production.

Domestic coal consumption is on the increase as people switch from oil; this is beginning to cause an environmental problem in Dublin. Coal for domestic use is imported via the main ports and distributed by road. There has been some interest in the possibilities of bulk rail distribution to regional depots; this may develop if the handling costs can be kept down.

Lignite Options

Viewed from the standpoint of the Republic, lignite would be seen as an import competing primarily with high-cost coal for the domestic market. It would also tend to compete with peat briquettes, and to this extent Bord na Mona might be expected to see it as a threat. The nature of this threat needs analysis; it may evaporate in proportion as the bogs are exhausted and B na M turns its attention to alternatives such as short-rotation forestry and other possible uses of cutaway bog.. We should note this as an area requiring delicate handling. There are indications however that B na M would be interested in investing in a lignite briquetting plant at Crumlin, if the opportunity were to arise, as an application of their knowhow and experience in briquetting technology, and as a window into the Northern market for other B na M products. There may be advantages in a peat-lignite blended briquette, in some circumstances, especially if the cost can be kept down by reverse-loading of a bulk haulage system.

Lignite would however not compete with imported US coal at Moneypoint. Consider the prices: $51 per tonne at 29.3 GJ is 43.1 IR, or 1.47 per GJ. Crumlin lignite is given as 9000 BTU per lb, which converts to 19.84MBTU or 20.93GJ per tonne, selling ex works at 30UK or 36.4IR, which is 1.74IR per GJ. This excludes transport considerations. The same logic would presumably hold for Kilroot, although there may here be UK policy constraints. Thus if we stick to strict commercial arguments and exclude national strategic considerations, the primary market for Crumlin lignite is as a substitute for imported coal for domestic or industrial use, rather than for bulk coal for electricity production.

If however one looks at the all-Ireland economy as a unit, the same argument can perhaps be used as keeps peat generation going in spite of low-cost imported coal. There is a strategic and political value in reducing dependence on imported fuel, for which consumers are prepared to pay a premium. An argument could therefore perhaps be made to supply from Crumlin a certain proportion of the needs of Moneypoint (10-20%?), or perhaps to the Ringsend generator in Dublin (should this be converted to solid fuel), as a means of building up a domestic source, and possibly enabling economies of scale to bring down the price.

The price of bulk rail-haul in the Republic ranges from about £3 to £6 per tonne for distances in the range 30-70 miles. At this price a rail-haul Crumlin to Moneypoint (250 miles?) would be prohibitive. There is however a possibility that for a regular large-volume long-haul load, with full utilisation of equipment, the price might come down: let us guess £15 per tonne (there should be European experience on this), giving a price of lignite delivered at Moneypoint in the region of 51IR per 21GJ tonne. This would represent something like a 65% loading on the US coal price, which would be difficult to justify on any political or strategic basis.

Thus we return to the main market, which is as a substitute for imported domestic coal. We are here dealing with consumer preference, with implied market development work. It would need to be made attractive to the existing distribution network. Delivery to existing import or stockage points at say 50IR per tonne should enable them to retail competitively with coal at a mark-up sufficient to cover market development costs. This would need further analysis in depth, market research, piloting etc. Some preliminary work has been done by John Goor in this area; the results presumably are on record and may be available.

There is room here for researching into an appropriate bulk delivery system, involving rail and/or water, throughout the country. Road delivery cost is in the region of 7 per tonne for a 30-40 mile radius; road-haul to Dublin would certainly be undercut by bulk rail, and the idea of bulk rail in 500 tonne lots to distribution centres throughout the country is worth a look.

Bulk delivery by water is a possibility which depends on the capacity and condition of the Bann navigation. According to the Inland Waterways Association, this is in serviceable condition; the locks are 100 by 18 ft (compared to 61 by 13 ft on the Grand Canal), which suggest a barge size up to 180 tonnes. Thus the continental standard BACAT system (140-tonne container-barges) could be used, with transhipment in unit-loads to a carrier-vessel at Coleraine for delivery to coastal ports in Ireland and west Britain (cf Terence Mallagh's 1975 study). Could this be done under 15 per tonne? Maybe, with good planning and well-designed modern handling. This would need to be researched. A system like this would interface easily with the existing coal distribution network.

The material for bulk handling comes in 2 forms: lumps and briquettes. Run-of-the-mine lignite is about 50% fines; this must be briquetted locally in order to stabilise it. When dried it is otherwise liable to spontaneous combustion and can be explosive. Bulk material can therefore be either unprocessed dried lumps or palletised briquettes. The former is suitable for bulk industrial use, the latter for domestic. The bulk delivery system should if possible be designed to handle both forms.

There is a significant bulk market locally in the North among the brick-works. In the Republic an important market would be the Platin cement-works. This currently supplies the North by bulk rail delivery, using special vehicles. The possibility of reverse-loading these vehicles for delivery of lignite to Platin is perhaps worth a look.

The traditional use for lignite is for local electricity production. For example the Rhenische Braunkohlwerke near Koln involves 5 opencast mines linked to 6 generating stations with a 400km dedicated rail network; most runs on the network are 40kms or less. Experience of this operation is in principle available; H Muller-Oehring read a paper at the international OR conference in Dublin in 1972 and he has remained in contact with the Irish OR network.

The existence of the Crumlin lignite should figure in the long-term (hopefully co-ordinated, if not integrated) plans of the two Irish electricity authorities. As older plant is written off Crumlin would begin to come on the agenda. There is an 8-10 year lead-time, which matches the expected retirement-times of Kilroot and the peat-stations in the Republic.

Conference Agenda

The conference, whether of type (a) or (b), should be followed by a rapportage or popularisation, which could take place simultaneously in Belfast and Dublin, aimed at the UNA memberships, the general public and the media. These rapportages should take place some days after the primary conference, so as to allow an integrated picture to be put together by the experts for public consumption. The primary conference should be regarded as a forum of expert opinion.

The Type (a) conference should consider the following topics:

1. Basic lignite production technology
2. Substitution for imported bulk coal at Kilroot
3. Bulk transport by rail
4. Bulk transport by water
5. Substitution for imported domestic coal: (a) environment (b) marketing (c) bulk transport and interfacing with existing distributors
6. Relationship to Peat: (a) use of lignite to feed existing peat briquetting system (b) possibility of a lignite-peat blend.
8. Alternative Uses of Lignite (eg as chemical feedstock).

The type (a) conference could be convened by personal approach to selected key individuals, and participation would be limited to those who contribute papers plus a limited number of invitees of the Committee, primarily from the key State agencies.

The type (b) conference should consider all the type (a) topics and in addition:

7. Energy import substitutions in general
9. Fuel options in the electricity generation, industrial and domestic markets
10. Renewable energy resources
11. Briquetting, pelletising and other upgrading technologies for wood, peat and lignite.

The 'Bulk Transport' topic should be extended to cover all fossil fuels, including natural gas; this gives the opportunity to look again at the economics of bringing Kinsale gas to feed the Northern Ireland gas industry.

The Type (b) conference should be entitled 'Energy Resources in Ireland' and joint sponsorship should be sought with an Engineering Institution having an all-Ireland basis (eg the Chemicals). There should be an open 'Call for Papers' published in the technical literature, with abstracts to be sent to named university-based contacts in Belfast and Dublin before a given deadline. The location in Crumlin should be a hint to those in the know that lignite is the focus.

The writer is in a position to canvass personally papers from acknowledged experts in all 11 topics, in the Republic; in the North he is a position to supplement Dr Poots' contacts.

The Type (a) conference should be a one-day event, running say from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm, with a short site visit before lunch, after the initial introductory paper on lignite technology.

The Type (b) conference should be a 2-day event, with opportunity for specialist workshops on problem-areas, and a more leisurely site visit, which should be in the afternoon of the first day; an 11.00 am start would allow arrivals from a distance.

The numbers involved should be in the range 20-30 (type a) or 40-60 (type b); in both cases they should be primarily the interested professionals. Rapportage of this event to the UNA memberships and the general public is clearly a separate operation; it may have some importance in the context of the developing political situation and it should take place with the minimum of 'hype'.

Roy H W Johnston PhD FInstP CIEI / Statistics and Operations Research Laboratory / Trinity College, c/o 30 Westland Row, Dublin 2

The following conversions have been used in the above:

IR = 0.825UK
IR = $1.183
1BTU = 1.055 kJ
1tonne = 2205lb.

A National Renewable Energy Resources Centre?

This came up in the context of trying to build on the renewable energy work previously done for the NBST, and the Nairobi UN conference. It is site-specific, being based on a quite detailed survey of Kinnitty Castle and its grounds. It remains as a template for similar projects relevant to the needs of the coming energy crisis, in the context of a spatial strategy revised in the direction of dispersion of planned population to centres of rural civilisation, along the lines envisaged by JJ in the 1950s.

The writer was involved in the development of some techno-economic planning software for the Energy Division of the NBST in 1980, the objective of which was to analyse the potential performance of projected biomass energy-farm systems (primarily short-rotation forestry).

In 1981 he attended the UN Renewable Energy Conference at Nairobi, having organised a prior meeting of all those involved in renewable energy work in Ireland. The proceedings of this meeting, entitled 'Renewable Energy Ireland' were subsequently published by the Irish United Nations Association and have been widely circulated. The information in this directory is however by now somewhat out of date.

The writer has since been keeping in touch with renewable energy work through the Solar Energy Society. He attended a seminar at Glencree in October 1983, which examined the employment-generating potential of renewable energy technologies, particularly in the light of the very positive Danish experience. A conference in Galway in April of this year concentrated the practical experience in Ireland to date.

A key element in the Danish experience is a nationally-financed development, testing and demonstration centre for renewable energy technologies (in the Danish case, primarily wind), supportive of the many firms engaged in producing and using equipment, to the extent that Danish wind equipment now dominates the US wind-farm market (supplying some 10% of the power requirements of California; there was a paper to the Solar Energy Society, in which this experience was related to Ireland, by an American engineer L D Staudt, in the autumn of 1985).

There is no such centre in Ireland, with the result that theoretical knowledge and practical experience of renewable energy technologies is dispersed in a number of university research centres, as well as in AFT and in several dispersed ESB locations, so that it is relatively inaccessible to entrepreneurs.

The ideal site (in the Irish context) should not be confined to wind; it should also have substantial traditional forest resources ( e.g for coppicing; the Loughgall short-rotation experience is now 11 years old and well quantified), and access to agricultural land (for assessment of various approaches to agricultural waste upgrading e.g. pig-slurry digestion with biogas production).

The site should also have buildings suitable for seminars, conferences and courses, including residential accommodation and substantial workshop space suitable for equipment maintenance, modification and development.

Given the engineering capability, it would of course make sense also to maintain, demonstrate and develop other renewable energy technologies, so that the ideal site should also have access to appropriate hydro resources.

An initial output of the centre might be related to the need to take up the energy by-product potential of current forest products; most saw-mills currently dump their waste. If briquetted, wood-waste forms an acceptable domestic fuel.

Initial commercial attempts to produce a marketable densified wood briquette have however run into problems (cf Technology Ireland Sept 85), so that there is a case for developing a centre of supportive knowhow, at which experience might be gained.

There is also a need for a general centre of knowhow for the art of adding value to timber, whether as a by-product of forest management (eg adding value to thinnings before the forest is mature), saw-milling, seasoning, impregnating, right down to the manufacture of timber products. This would interface with existing IIRS experience. A case could perhaps be made from the IIRS angle for for stronger interfacing with the producer at local level. Such an opportunity would be provided by the proposed Centre.

A possibly significant initial source of biomass might be the waste produced by the County Council hedge-trimming programmes, which currently ends up as bonfires in the fields. It would perhaps prove feasible to reduce this material to manageable form with some sort of mobile chipper, and to transport it to local centres for a period of air-drying (as with peat) followed by deification to the form of a marketable briquette, as in the case of sawmill waste.

The key to the economic harvesting of energy crops is logistics. This aspect in the case of the hedge-trimming operation would of course be crippling, if it were viewed simply as an energy-harvesting operation. It becomes of interest however if it is regarded as an opportunity for developing a mechanically robust and efficient harvesting system, comparable to a forage harvester, which would have some chance of working economically in a planned situation where the logistics was favourable, as in an energy-farm system managed along the lines of a Bord na Mona bog (or, indeed, in a farm hedging situation where the hedge was managed as an energy-source).

Some if not all of the above technologies are available abroad (eg from Finland or New England) but would probably need adaptation to Irish conditions. Given that wood briquettes (from whatever source) constitute a fuel capable of supplying a sector of the domestic and industrial fuel market with an acceptable substitute for imported coal and (in some applications) oil, and given the dispersed nature of the resource, an opportunity exists for a large number of local or regional enterprises, comparable to the number of existing sawmills and Council hedging operations. Entry to the processed fuel market would be a welcome additional opportunity for many of these enterprises, once support for the technology was available from an accessible knowhow centre.

This initial emphasis suggests that a suitable location for the 'national renewable resources centre' might be the Forestry School at Kinnitty Castle (at present disused, as the Department has abandoned its educational role in forestry; it is in an acceptable state of maintenance, though some restoration would be necessary, possibly in the form of an An CO-type project).

It is therefore suggested that a working group be set up to elaborate a plan for utilising Kinnitty Castle as a national support and development centre for renewable resource technologies, along the lines suggested, that its educational role be reviewed in the context of links with an appropriate network of 3rd-level colleges having a practical interest in the various aspects of the work of the proposed centre, and that its potential role in upgrading local knowhow in adding value to timber be explored in consultation with the IIRS.

Such a centre should also be of interest to those concerned with 3rd-world development co-operation, both in Ireland and in the 3rd world itself (this aspect is developed in greater depth in Appendix II). Given the residential possibilities, it would seem reasonable to envisage the development of an "export services" aspect, with people coming from abroad to gain hands-on experience of several small to medium-scale renewable resource technologies, in a form relevant to the needs of developing countries. This aspect would need to be explored in consultation with bodies such as HEDCO, DEVCO and the development co-operation agencies.

The photovoltaic system currently being given field trials with EEC funding in Fota by Dr Gerry Wrixon of UCC (on a scale of the order of 100kW) is increasingly being viewed has having third-world potential. The location of this system may possibly turn out to be subject to review, given the question of change of ownership of Fota. Important aspects of the Fota project are storage-inversion and interfacing with the ESB grid. Both of these are relevant to a multi- source renewable energy system. The multiplicity of sources reduces the required storage capacity per unit peak load, this being the costly element. The synergistic potential of a multiplicity of renewable energy sources is explored tentatively in Appendix III.

The financing of this operation could be done largely by creative redeployment of existing resources, with some additional outlay on a management system. The latter could be covered by EEC topping-up funding (from some scheme such as Valoren), once existing within-State funding had been identified. If well managed, including the development of the conference and touristic potential as well as local timber resources, the Centre would have every prospect of becoming self-sustaining. This would need to be elaborated in a feasibility study at an appropriate level of detail.

It could be argued that the system would be largely self-managing, as a mini-economy of autonomous profit-centres, making use of each others by-products, and drawing revenue from the market. The managers of the autonomous centres would be people interested in production for the market, or the development of systems suitable for production for the market elsewhere; in the latter case the Centre would be their shop-window. Existing local enterprises (eg the existing sawmill, or neighboring farmers) could also enter into appropriate contractual arrangements.

Thus for example the biogas digester, under autonomous management, would sell a slurry disposal service to the pig unit (and to other pig-units in the neighborhood), biogas to various on-site users, processed liquid fertiliser to the organic farm, and bagged and dried fertiliser to the urban garden market.

Similarly the organic farm (insofar as it is under glass or plastic tunnel) would constitute a market for low-grade heat (e.g. cooling water from the gas engine powering the sawmill or cold-store).

The various synergetic opportunities need to be elaborated in the initial feasibility study.

In proportion as organic farming experience accumulated, it could be made available to the Agriline database for use by farmers more generally.

The following additional material is appended:

I: Suggested Terms of Reference for an initial feasibility study, to be implemented over a period of the order of 6 months.

II Some considerations relating to third world technology needs.

III How some of the renewable energy technologies might relate to each other synergetically.

IV: Map of site, with references to legend suggesting tentative locations for the various units of the synergetic system, and some further site-specific comments on the synergy potential.

Appendix I: Suggested Terms of Reference

2. To make active use of the members of the working group as a means of testing out the viability of the ideas to be embodied in the final proposal, at their various stages of development. The following represents a preliminary listing of some possible avenues worth exploring (subject to review as the project develops):

2.1. To assess the amount of applied research and development interest in renewable resource technologies which is currently active, and to quantify it in terms of 'within-State' funding. (This, in effect, would involve an update and enhancement of the present writer's 1980 'Renewable Energy Ireland'.)

2.2 To identify specific sources of renewable energy technologies having relevance to the resources of the site, with particular reference to their synergetic potential, along the lines suggested in Appendices III and IV, and to outline an approach to negotiating their participation in the development plan.

2.3. To attempt to quantify the logistic experience of existing Council hedge-cutting operations, with a view to assessing their relevance as sources of energy-farm harvesting experience.

2.4 To assess the market for equipment and services that might be expected to arise as a result of the activity of a demonstration centre along the lines suggested, with a view to an eventual manufacturing operation, either by existing agricultural engineering firms, or by new enterprise aimed at developing a specific niche having import substitution and export potential.

2.5 To evaluate 'renewable energy centre' experience abroad, with particular reference to (a) the Danish wind centre mentioned above (b) the Llangollen centre in Wales (c) one or more of the centres associated with the United Nations University having specific third-world relevance. To make use of the US experience focused at the Institute of Gas Technology conference on Energy from Biomass scheduled for New Orleans in February 1988.

2.6 To assess the extent of existing local community linkages, and potential for new ones capable of generating jobs.

3. To embody the above and other avenues of exploration in a report in such a way as to make the case for sufficient top-up funding under some appropriate Community scheme to enable Kinnitty Castle to be developed in the manner suggested without net cost to the State.

Appendix II: The Renewable Energy Centre and the Third World

Arising from the 1983 Glencree SESI conference, and from the World Food Day seminar on 16/10/84, let me resurrect the concept of a National Renewable Energy Centre for research, development, demonstration and training...

Background: European industrial developmental experience is rooted in locally available energy resources, at the village level: water-mills, windmills, forestry. In some cases the latter has been managed as a renewable resource (eg in Germany, France etc), while in others it has been 'mined', with disastrous environmental results. The mining of the forests in the English case led to the discovery of the technology of coal and the first industrial revolution. Although this development road cannot, and indeed should not, be simply repeated, there are lessons to be learned, such as that the skilled labour from village-level technology when concentrated into towns was a key factor: the first steam-engines were made by blacksmiths. The importance of local labour skills in the economic transformation of the third world cannot be overestimated.

Attempts to make 'appropriate technology' available in the 3rd world at village level, in the form of pumps, generators etc, by development co-operation agencies have often come to grief on the problem of the maintenance infrastructure, on system management skills, and on problems of resource ownership and control. There would thus appear to be a need to link the provision of local energy sources at village level, for use in the upgrading and stabilisation of local food production, with the process of local technical education of the workforce, and the development of co-operative management skills.

Irish Resources: Development co-operation resources in Ireland to date have been turning their attention to two distinct areas: (a) basic education, literacy and hygiene at local level, with volunteer teachers, nurses etc (b) 3rd-level projects at State level (eg hydrology, statistics and administration, specialist university faculties etc). Feedback from field-workers however suggests the existence of a gap, in the form of a need for basic technical education at the level appropriate to village productive needs, particularly regarding energy systems.

There is a sector of Irish expertise (mostly members of the Solar Energy Society) which has a long-term dedication to renewable energy systems, and has begun to develop a significant track-record in this field. There are however many obstacles to the acceptance of renewable energy systems in supplementing an already well-developed energy infrastructure; these can only be overcome in exceptional circumstances (eg Denmark, California, offshore islands etc). Irish renewable energy expertise remains scattered, in different locations, with various technologies at various levels of development.

Disparately available technologies include: peat in all its aspects, short-rotation forestry (coppicing), wood and peat gasification (yielding mechanical energy with charcoal as byproduct, or vice versa), wind (for water-pumping or electricity-generation), anaerobic digestion of animal and vegetable wastes (for fertiliser and biogas), mini-hydro (for mechanical or electrical energy); also, marginally, wave-energy on the McCabe system. There is also, in an advanced state, a photovoltaic system with storage/inversion yielding grid-standard AC (Wrixon at Cork).

The then level of Irish expertise was summarised by the proposer in the IUNA/SESI publication 'Renewable Energy Ireland' in December 1981, under the impact of the need for an Irish input to the UN conference in Nairobi in that year. This effort has continued and expanded, despite the unfavourable environment, and has been reflected in the ongoing SESI proceedings.

Outline Proposal: The essence of the present proposal is to look into the feasibility of bringing these needs and resources together, around a development co-operation project of a new type, focused on energy technology at the village level, as adumbrated at Nairobi.

The focus of the project would be an appropriate site, having existing trees and suitable for ongoing forest development on a short-rotation system (coppicing), with appropriate hydro and wind resources, and with a village-scale energy-market (eg a hotel or conference centre). This site would be developed as a centre for students to gain hands-on experience of every conceivable renewable energy production and conversion technology. The conference centre, as well as being a market for local energy- production, would provide off-season student accommodation, while catering for the commercial touristic and/or conference market as appropriate.

The project would provide a service to universities and colleges of technology interested in providing a 'renewable energy systems' module in their engineering programmes. The output of the system would be skill and experience, not only in the utilisation and management, but also in the maintenance, repair and production of renewable energy systems.

Once developed and running in an Irish context, and with all the debugging done, the centre would provide for engineering students and teachers from the third world a 'total knowhow package' enabling them to manage, maintain, repair, assemble and ultimately produce, for use at village level, autonomous energy centres, utilising local renewable energy resources, and to set up their own training centres, based on local technical schools, for this purpose.....

Appendix III: The Multi-Source Renewable Energy Centre Concept

...Consider a scenario in which there is set up, in some suitable location, a centre where every conceivable production, conversion, storage and control technology for renewable energy is run as an integrated system, supplying a local market and interfacing with the grid, as a feeder when in surplus, and with the grid as standby when in deficit.

Imagine outputs in the form of grid-standard AC, DC, shaft power, compressed air, gas, hot water and steam, derived from inputs of wind, mini-hydro, photovoltaic, anaerobic digestion and biomass.

Various types of wind-generator are on trial (as in the Danish test-centre), some feed the AC network, others feed DC into the storage-inversion system (as at Fota); this is also fed by photovoltaics. The DC is used for some elements of the control system (fans, pumps) and energises the control electronics. The AC is rectified to feed the storage, when AC is in surplus and storage is not at full capacity. Surplus AC is fed to the grid. When there is high AC demand the stored DC in inverted; the grid is only drawn upon as ultimate standby.

There is a stream on the site, where there is a small 'run-of-the-river' hydro system (20-50 kW),supplying shaft power, which can be used for (eg) a sawmill, a compressor for a cold-store, or, possibly, a high-pressure compressor for bottling oxygen (see below). The shaft-power systems also feed AC generators which can double as motors (in calm weather and if the stream is dry), so that the sawmill and compressor(s) can always work.

DC supplied surplus to storage capacity is used for electrolysis, supplying H2 to enrich the gas line, and O2 for bottling for the industrial gas market. Alternatively the O2 can be used to enrich the air feed to the wood gasifier, which also feeds the gas line.

(Q: What problems arise when you mix biogas, wood pyrolysis gas and H2, if any?)

(The wood gasifier, being isolated from the gas engine, and feeding the gas storage system, would need to be blown by a fan and closely controlled: cf the Herbst peat-gasifier.)

The gas would be used for process heat (a kiln?) or steam generation (in which case the boiler feed-water would be pre-heated by a solar panel); it could also feed a gas engine, supplementing the shaft power. The cooling water from the gas engine would warm the biogas digester, or dry the digested slurry for bagging and sale to the urban market. Wet digested slurry feeds the organic farm with fertiliser.

The wood for gasification would come not only from the sawmill waste, but also from an area of managed coppice, harvested with a mobile or semi-mobile chipper.

An important by-product of the wood-gasification process would be charcoal, this not only being in demand on the home market as a quality fuel (eg for barbecues etc, and in up-market restaurants), but is also in demand in many third-world countries, where it is the main urban fuel, supplied by rural producers as a cash-crop. Current charcoal production practice however wastes the volatiles which in the wood-gas process are recovered and utilised.

Such an energy centre, if managed on a continuous basis, with all inputs and outputs instrumented, and with on-line monitoring etc, would serve (a) for training of engineering students and technicians for renewable energy systems in Ireland (b) for evaluating equipment (c) for enabling site-specific feasibility studies to be done, in the sense that an engineer having a specific site in mind could get a 'hands on' feel for those technologies appropriate to the target site, and could avail of experience to adapt the scale to the target site statistics (d) as a source of energy and knowhow in an Irish development area (e) as a location from which the training of engineers and technicians in renewable energy technologies could be exported to third-world countries.

There should, of course, be a pig-farm to feed the digester.

As regards solar cells: no matter how cheap they become, they will not render other renewable energy technologies obsolete, in that by-products like charcoal and gas each have their own qualitative utility. Any system should have at least two sources, of which, increasingly, photovoltaics might be one, as the cost comes down. You wouldn't use photovoltaics for process heat..

A suitable location might be found where there was a hotel as a component of the local energy market, as well as a local food production system. Such a resource would enable the residential component of the training needs to be met at marginal cost, in the off-season of the tourist trade.....

Appendix IV: 'Site Map' Legend

1. Upper mini-hydro unit.
2. Sawmill.
3. Wood-chip briquetting/densifying unit, driven by gas engine.
4. Drying/seasoning shed for sawn timber.
5. Blending and storage unit for gas (biogas, wood gas, hydrogen); electrolysis unit producing hydrogen and oxygen; gas compression unit.
6. Waste-wood gasifier, producing charcoal as by-product.

Upper or 'walled garden' mini-industrial complex:

7. Walled garden organic horticultural area.
8. Organic farm centre (in lower yard).
9. Pig-unit (clearing in woods).
10. Slurry digester producing biogas.
11. Drying and bagging system for digested slurry.
12. Provender mill and/or cold-store.

Central Complex

13. Offices, conference rooms, residential accommodation (mostly dormitory or shared).
14. Wood-fired heating system for main building.
15. Workshops (mechanical, electrical, electronic, craft).
16. Single-unit village-type accommodation.

Remote or flexibly-sited units

18. Photovoltaic unit (as at Fota).
19. Semi-mobile chipping unit(s) for coppice biomass.
20. Lower mini-hydro unit.

Notes on Legend:

Lower (riverside) industrial complex:

1, 20. There are 2 possible mini-hydro sites, the upper one (1) showing signs of prior use (there are traces of a head-race on the east bank, south of the sawmill). Locating it near the present sawmill would render feasible a demonstration 'integrated shaft-power complex', with gas engine (3) supplying supplementary power when the river is low; when power is in surplus it can generate electricity; a classic 19th century system which is again becoming interesting thanks to the feasibility of electronic controls. The gas engine can also drive the wood chip densifier/briquetter unit (3). The lower hydro site (20) is intrinsically stand-alone electrical, being remote from the other activity.

2. The existing sawmill could form the focus of an expanded and improved operation, on the basis of an appropriately revised arrangement with the present operator. There is evidence of substantial accrued waste, in various stages of decay.

3. Waste heat from the gas engine which drives the densifier unit would substitute or supplement the heat from the wood-gasifier, for use in seasoning sawn timber.

4. The availability of waste heat from the wood-gasifier and the briquetting unit makes this worth looking into; even if there is not enough wood chip volume initially to run the gasifier and briquetter continuously, eventually this may build up to an adequate level, once the logistics of forestry and hedgerow waste handling gets to be tractable, after appropriate development.

5. Biogas from the upper complex is the mainstream, but if there is wood gas available in significant quantities in the lower complex, then the possibility of blending it into the gas system needs to be explored. It will probably need treatment for removal of corrosives (eg acetone). If it is considered worth looking into electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen and oxygen (as a means of energy storage, on a small scale), then the hydrogen could also be blended off into the gas system. In small-scale installations there will be a quality and management problem. Is this tractable? What to do with the oxygen? Would it be marketable, if compressed, on the industrial gas market? On what scale would it be worth while? All these questions are worth a research look with maybe some creative development of small-scale marketable production systems, of potential third-world significance. This has been looked at by the University of Loughborough in the context of the needs of Scottish islands, so it is not without precedent. Wood-gas has been looked into by Georgia Institute of Technology, and other US centres.

6. Depending on the supply and demand one could feed waste wood, wood chips and sawdust to either the gasifier or the briquetter; both should be located in this riverside mini-industrial complex. Both would produce waste heat of use for sawn timber seasoning.

Upper (walled-garden) mini-industrial complex:

7. The walled garden forms a highly productive horticultural micro-climate. This could be enhanced by the use of plastic tunnels. Waste heat from the upper-complex gas engine (12) might also be available, depending on the scale of the biogas operation.

8. The nature of the organic farm operation will depend to some extent on existing community land use (eg football on field X, field Y is let on conacre to a neighboring farmer etc). It may be that it will concentrate on an organic pig-feed mix (eg a barley-legumes mix, as pioneered by the Breton 'agricoles biologiques', which mills direct to an acceptable compound without further blending), and contract with local farmers to grow enough of it to feed the pig unit. Or it may decide otherwise. One way or another it will need an operational centre, and the existing farm buildings in the lower yard are more than adequate.

9. The pig unit needs to be sited so as there is gravity feed to the digester; also it needs to be away from the Castle, for aesthetic reasons. It could be sited in a clearing among the trees, on raised ground, some distance on the far side of the walled garden, with drainage down to the digester (10).

10. The digester could perhaps be sized to as to process all slurry from pig-farms within a radius of (say) 10 miles, thus producing a pattern which could be copied in the Sheelin area where pollution is a problem. Indeed the pig-farm on-site is optional; if it turns out to be an economic enterprise in the context of the organic farm, then it should be done. The exact location remains subject to detailed analysis of slopes and run-offs. We need to avoid risk of polluting the river.

11. If the slurry volume is enhanced by brought-in slurry from the neighborhood, then the ratio bagged for sale to the urban horticultural market could increase, and we would need more process heat for it. These aspects need to be gone into further.

12. It is desirable to associate a gas engine with the digester, so as to use the cooling water in closed circuit to warm the slurry and render the anaerobic process more rapid. This is crucial to its economics. It would make thermodynamic nonsense to use biogas directly to produce this heat; far better to take out the mechanical energy first. Thus we have a source of shaft power at the digester, wherever it is. Options available for its use are (eg) a provender mill or a cold store.

Central Buildings Complex:

13. The residential resources open up all sorts of interesting possibilities, ranging from an international conference centre specialising in renewable resource technology transfer, to a role as a sort of development engineers' analogue of the writers' centre at Annamakerrig Co Monaghan: a place to spend creative time, in the company of others, improving a prototype device. Its use is also envisaged as an AnCO field training centre for people potentially involved in various aspects of adding value to forest products, and productive use of renewable energy equipment.

There is also the possibility that the Centre may develop as a national information resource for organic farming, with appropriate database, linked into (for example) the Agriline service. Information-technology knowhow of the necessary calibre would therefore be needed; this would be a central service in the main building.

14. The existing oil-fired system should of course be dispensed with; perhaps it can be converted to wood-gas, or alternatively replaced with a boiler designed to handle fuel-wood. This could be a demonstration- point for manufacturers of this type of equipment, of which there are several in Ireland.

15. The workshops close to the residential village can perhaps develop synergetic lives of their own, providing services to the outside world and giving employment to the residents and the local community.

16. The residential village, on the Clashganna model, centres in the upper yard. It constitutes the social core of the project.

Remote or Flexible Locations:

17. This is not the most exciting site for wind, but it probably is no worse that that adopted by the ESB near Blessington. There is a strip of high ground here which looks westwards over open ground, though it is sheltered on the east. It would take possibly 3-5 horizontal-axis units, mounted on masts of a height to clear the trees to the east (40ft or so). Ideally it should be possible to persuade the ESB to displace some of its activity and recorded experience to this location, where it would become accessible to those interested in using it for educational purposes.

18. The Fota photovoltaic unit is linked to a dairy farm; this is not essential in the present context. At Fota the rationale was to match the seasonality of supply to the seasonality of demand. At Kinnitty the demand throughout the year should be relatively constant; on the supply side the summer peak of the photovoltaics should complement the winter peak of the mini-hydro. The photovoltaic unit produces DC which is fed to the general DC storage system. Somewhere there will be needed a general management and control centre for the linked energy equipment, and for its interfacing with the grid. The photovoltaic system doubles as a roof, so it could usefully cover an energy centre building, housing the storage-inversion, monitoring and control systems.

19. Several designs of these have been tried out at Oakpark (AFT); they need to be located close to the source of the forestry waste to be chipped. Much of the material in the Kinnity Castle demesne woods would initially be low-grade scrub thinnings, the reduction of which to manageable chunks presents the agricultural engineers with the type of challenge they would have to meet if biomass harvesting is ever to become economic.

The volume of production from the demesne itself would need to be worked out on the basis of long-term renewability under a managed mixed-species regime with a coppice component. Some selective culling of mature trees may perhaps be desirable, in order to develop a feel for hardwood forestry management, necessary in the long term. The overall regime would need to be under the advice of a competent forester with a feel for ecology. The experience gained here would be useful for applying to other old-established demesne forestry (eg Coolatin, Muckross etc) in order to avoid ecological disasters such as the Coolatin clear-felling and the Killarney infestation with rhododendron. There is much experience here from France to be picked up and applied. Tropical hardwoods will become increasingly unobtainable, as they come under global management in the interests of the global ecosystem; at present they are being mined without regard to sustainable yield.

There are about 25-30 acres, enough to replace the need to import oil for heating, and perhaps to enable small-scale wood-gasification/charcoal production technologies to be piloted, experimentally or for training.

20. (See with 1. above)

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999