BY HELEN RIDDELL
BERE Island Projects Group are one a number of Irish islands who have been selected to be one of 30 European islands to participate in an EU initiative for 30 islands to transition to clean energy by 2030.
Eugene Glendon, chair of Bere Island Projects Group said the West Cork Islands and Inishbofin have been selected to participate in a three-year collaboration with the Clean Energy for EU Islands.
‘Bere Island is delighted to have been chosen and this initiative will provide technical assistance over the course of three years, supporting our goal of becoming fully renewable by 2030,’ he added.
In recent years, Bere Island Projects Group and the Bere Island Sustainable Energy Community, through the SEAI, commissioned an energy master plan for the island.
In 2021 it revealed that the island, which has a population of just under 200, spent €1.8m on energy costs. Of the total energy usage on Bere Island, a staggering 78.3% was from transport, residential energy usage was 17.3% and commercial usage was just 3.8%, with farming at 0.5%.
The master plan also identified key focus areas, such as improving energy efficiency in housing stock, reducing fossil fuel consumption and installing charging points for electric cars and bikes, and mitigating marine vessel dependence on diesel usage.
The Projects Group first began to explore the potential of the island moving away from the use of fossil fuels in 2010, when a group of islanders travelled to Samso island off Denmark (Europe’s first renewable energy island) to see at first hand the work the Samso Energy Academy were doing.
The group hosted a visit to Bere Island in 2022 by representatives from the Samso Energy Academy who met with the island community, including and business owners.
The Bere group believes that the transition to renewable energy will enable the island community to save an average of 20% of their energy use, have lower fuel bills and create local jobs through refitting homes and growing bio-mass fuels. The group is aiming to see Bere Island becoming carbon-neutral by 2030 with zero fossil fuel consumption.
In the past year, the Projects Group secured Clar funding to purchase an electric bus for use by the island community and install a charging point and PV panels at the island community centre. They have also installed a more sustainable air-to-air heating system at the community centre. The island recycling centre has also been converted to run entirely on renewable energy.
