Ryan to rule on alternative to peat tariff

DETAILS of Government support for the use of miscanthus as an alternative to peat in power-generating stations will be made known today.

Energy Minister Eamon Ryan is to reveal the tariff the Government is to pay the ESB or Bord na Mna for using the so-called “Elephant Grass” in heat plants.

Some 300 growers countrywide have been awaiting the decision to ensure the viability of the industry from field to furnace.

They have been producing the bamboo-like crop without knowing what price they will be paid by the power stations forsupplies.

Politicians and growers warned in recent weeks that a decision was urgently needed on the REFIT (Renewal Energy Feed in Tariff) price.

Labour Party spokesman on agriculture Seán Sherlock said it was vital the REFIT price was clarified so as to allow a margin at each stage of the supply chain.

This would in turnsecure the survival of the domestic biomass andmiscanthus industries in the long term, he said.

Some 3,500 acres of the 5,000 acres of miscanthus grown in Ireland are under contract to JHM Crops, Adare, Co Limerick.

The company’s managing director Joe Hogan, who planted the first commercial crop of miscanthus in Ireland near Adare in 2004, said everyone in the industry knows what tariff is needed, but he would not like to preempt Mr Ryan’s promised announcement today by putting a figure on it.

Ronan Madigan, JHM’s communications manager, said the company has been putting supply chains in place for the power stations since it started trial burning in Edenderry, Co Offaly, in January, 2008.

“It has been frustrating to have to wait so long for this announcement, which we were expecting several months ago,” he said.