Solar Powered Energy Generation
Sustainability is at the heart of Beauparc. We recognise the impacts of climate change and are committed to addressing these challenges through CO² reduction initiatives. Moving to a low carbon future through generating our own renewable energy is a key goal. Through Bioverda, we currently generate renewable electricity from landfill gas on nine different sites across Ireland. However, as landfill gas is not finite we are strategically developing Solar farms on a number of suitable landfill sites.
As we already have the grid infrastructure in place, solar PV is a complementary renewable energy project to utilise landfill sites. On two of our sites, planning has been approved with the capacity to generate 2 MW per hour of electricity on each site. These projects will generate 3,600MW annually representing an investment of €3.2M. Negotiations are ongoing with local authorities for the development of solar farms on two further landfill sites. These planning applications will be submitted in 2018 for a combined capacity of 4MW.
As an intensive energy user in the processing of materials we have put a strategy in place to reduce our overall dependency on fossil fuels by installing roof mounted solar PV technologies on our most energy intensive sites. Our Rathdrinagh facility has received planning permission for a 446kW roof mounted Solar PV system which will generate 370MWh for self-consumption. This project will represent a €450,000.00 investment. The MRF facility is pending for a solar roof mounted project of a 353KW system to generate 293MWh for self-consumption. These projects will represent a €318,000 investment. Our new development in Fassaroe will also incorporate solar PV into its design.
To further complement our generation business, we have submitted a planning application for a Ground Mounted Solar farm in Rathdrinagh. This project is expected to generate 2,700MWh annually with an initial investment of €3.05M.
A total investment from Bioverda towards solar projects is currently forecast at €10.17M. These solar projects are expected to generate a total of 10,563MWh displacing 3,877 tonnes of CO² emissions (CRU, 2017).