Submission from 3CEA

Subject: Kilkenny County Development Plan 2020 - 2026

Contact Name: Paddy Phelan

Name of Group if applicable: 3 Counties Energy Agency

Address: Kilkenny Research & Innovation Centre, Burrells Hall, St Kieran’s College Kilkenny,

1. What is the purpose of the submission—explain what elements of the Plan you wish to comment on and why.

As a non-profit, independent energy agency working primarily in Carlow, Kilkenny and Wexford. 3cea is committed to the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects across all the local authorities we represent. As we approach 2020 and plan for 2030, the measures that we put in place for the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2020 – 2026 should insure Kilkenny’s County Development Plan will meaningfully reduce its City and Counties CO2 emissions and combat climate change in a supportive guise.. Referencing heavily the County SEAP.

Exemplar County Renewable Energy action plans (reference south Tipp Local Authorities 2013 plan) has impacted larger implementation and reduced CO2 in their county.

2. Add in any background information you consider relevant.

The 3cea submissions forms part of the ongoing work we do in the county in terms of energy efficiency, renewable energy and community engagement in the energy sector. The Covenant of Mayors initiative looked at a countywide approach to climate change with a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020.

The agency in partnership with KCC have stimulated significant investment in Energy Efficiency over the past 15 years and should look back in 10 years’ time stating that the developed 2020-2026 County Development plan supported

- Community

- Citizen ( Prosumer – the producing consumer)

- SME

- Industry

To engage fairly in the Energy Transition which will have occurred at that point. Common reference in the energy sector is to that transition of the Telecommunications sector in the early 00’s. It is happening and the City & County of Kilkenny will be positioned at the forefront of this transition supporting

- Renewables

- Data-Centres

- Smart Technologies

- Energy Tech & Software’s (reference Modus Energy Ltd creating 178 jobs in Kilkenny & Wicklow in partnership with Crowley Carbon.)

3. Outline your ideas, opinions, and what possible options or solutions you can suggest which would improve the Plan.

Housing:

• Home EV Charge Points - Every new housing development or one off house should have a EV charger incorporated as part of planning application, this will allow the natural increase in charging points across Kilkenny as the amount of EV’s on our roads increase.

• Housing Developments - All new housing developments should be installing LED street lighting in compliance with KCC specification. A design for each development should be submitted along with the detailed specification of the proposed lighting scheme.

• House Design – Thermal bridging and airtightness tests should be carried out on all new developments in the county. This will allow for more energy efficient homes over and above the BER rating currently used.

• Low Carbon housing standards over and above the Part L (Reference DunLaoghaire Rathdown )

Renewable Energy:

• District Heating – Each large development proposed for Kilkenny should have the consideration made to install a renewable district heating system, a feasibility study should be carried out on each development to allow for this.

• Support Scheme Renewable Heat – Will require planning approval pre scheme application. Planning process is now critical path under all new Irish Energy projects.

• Community Renewable Energy supported in planning.

• Wind Energy - Onshore – Since the last development plan there has been many advancements in the operation and efficiencies of wind turbines. The same wind turbine constructed in 2012 can produce significantly more electricity and can operate at a lower wind speed. Therefore the mapping system used previously should be revised to include lower wind speeds in line with the technology that is available today and also that will be available in the future.

• Wind Energy – Offshore or Tidal – Belview/ River Suir port are for consideration on tidal energy technologies.

• Bio Gas – Energy Regulator instructed the Network Operator in June 2018 to start accepting green gas injection applications to its networks as per the UK and central Europe.

• Pyrolysis – Gasification of biological materials. .

• Waste to Energy – incineration – Works effectively with clean air policies in Sweden under public ownership/ community ownership.

• Rooftop PV – Increase the planning exemption to support increased distributed generation on rooftop.

• PV – Ground Mounted – Continue to support suitable Developments in accordance with existing policy.

• Hydrolysis – Support the provision of technologies to cater for excess renewable electricity using Hydrolysis to convert water to Methane and inject to gas grid. Renewable Gas.

Energy Efficiency:

• Sustainable Energy Zones/Low Energy Neighbourhoods – The support of sustainable energy zones/low energy neighbourhoods and

• Increasing amount of renewables and energy efficiency in new commercials buildings – The current building regulations limited

Transport:

• EV charging infrastructure – The current electric vehicle charging infrastructure is quite poor across Kilkenny. New commercial developments such as cinemas, retail, hotels, industrial parks etc. should incorporate electric vehicle charge points as part of their planning submission. Consideration of publicly owned parks and other opportunities also need to be considered.

• Compressed Natural Gas developments for transport. Filling stations on strategic infrastructure nodes

• CHP for Biomass – future supports on rural energy demand meeting urban energy supply.

• Public Transport - the publics access to low carbon mobility development. Reference city bus programme and learnings from the Kilkenny iRoUTE partnership report from July 2017.

• Car free City Centre – The consideration for a car free city should be made for Kilkenny City, the use of a park and ride system and shuttle service on the ring road would allow the city to

Climate Change: The adaption to climate change is going to become inevitable. While the energy agency has mainly concentrated on mitigation factors such as energy efficiency, energy management and renewable energy we recognise the need to take action on adaption also. The Development Plan should take account of these measures to seamlessly integrate them into the county.

The mitigation factors are all discussed above and will allow the county to use less energy more efficiently.

4. If your submission relates to a specific location, make sure to include a map, or any other photos that would help in making your case.

Data Centres should be considered strategic.

Gas to grid from agri esidue (slurries etc) should be considered strategic objective.

Supporting the Energy Transition should be strategic objective.

Energy Efficiecny in all buildings

- New

- Existing

Should be considered a strategic objective

Job growth in the Smart Energy Sector for

- Equipment

- Services

- ICT

- Software

Supporting jobs for the next generation.