State aid for up to 50 biofuel projects

NEARLY 50 applications for biofuel production have been received by the Government, and several projects are being grant-aided already, revealed Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan at this week’s biofuel conference organised by the IFA.

She said 34 applications were made for pilot biofuel projects on foot of the 2003 Finance Act mineral oil tax relief. Decisions on these applications would be made shortly, and negotiations are continuing between the Departments of Marine and of Finance on scaling up the mineral oil tax relief scheme.

Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) has grant aided almost €250,000 to biofuel developers. A further €40,000 has been provided to Teagasc for oil quality testing.

Minister Coughlan said oilseed rape for biodiesel offers the best short-term prospect in liquid biofuels, especially in combination with tallow or recovered vegetable oils. “Likewise, the possibility of meat and bone meal being utilised for energy purposes in this country has also to be welcomed,” she said.

In the Government’s most recent Alternative Energy Requirement Programme competition, three biomass heating projects and ten biomass anaerobic digestion projects were successful.

Four large-scale biomass installations got SEI funding of almost €200,000, and SEI’s House of Tomorrow Programme has grant aided installation of wood pellet boilers in almost 100 homes.

However, the new Single Payment aid of €45 per hectare per year for areas sown with energy crops is insufficient to stimulate production to any great extent, said Minister Coughlan at the conference, where IFA President John Dillon called on the Government to immediately build a sustainable Irish bioenergy industry, with agriculture as the major player.