A WEST Cork school is blazing a trail after reducing its carbon emissions by 87% by switching to hydrotreated vegetable oil to fuel its heating system.
St Enda’s National School at Kilnadur in Dunmanway is the first primary school in Ireland to transition its heating system to use Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), which is considered a renewable and more environmentally friendly energy source than traditional fossil fuels.
Concubhar McCarthy of CMcC Services in Dunmanway initially advised the school of the availability of HVO as a fuel alternative.
The primary school made the decision to switch to HVO after it was found earlier this year that its boiler was operating at only 70% efficiency. The conversion of the boiler at St. Enda’s to HVO forms part of the school’s broader efforts to uphold its status as a green school, having received Green Flags for litter and waste, energy, water, and travel.
‘We are very excited to pioneer this transition to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), and we believe that the carbon emissions reductions we will achieve will lead to St Enda’s becoming a blueprint for schools across the country,’ said school principal Liam Cotter.
‘Our goal is to not only reduce our carbon footprint significantly, but also to educate our students about the importance of climate responsibility and empower them to make environmentally conscious choices. ‘When we discuss the transition with pupils in September, we will be using it as an opportunity to illustrate the need for each and every one of us to contribute to Ireland reducing our carbon footprint over the coming decades, and the different ways that this can be done.’
David Blevings, a spokesperson for the Alliance for Zero Carbon Heating (TAZCH), a group founded in January 2022 with the goal of decarbonising Ireland’s home heating sector, said that innovative new technologies such as biofuels have the capacity to transform Irish society and accelerate us towards our climate objectives.
‘We believe that HVO should be a more accessible option, not just for heating of schools and county councils as we have already seen, but also for the 700,000 households who depend on liquid fuels around the country,’ he added.
