With policy changing and a “push for renewable heating that’s going to be mandated soon”, farms must adopt new technologies to help reduce emissions from heating and cooling activities.
And the sooner they do it, “the sooner you can pay off your investment”, researcher Nick Vafeas of the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences told the Irish Examiner at this week’s Teagasc event focused on the use of heat pumps in agriculture.
Air and ground-source heat pumps are a consideration for many poultry, pig, and horticultural units in particular.
According to Teagasc, heat pump technology is 300%-400% efficient; for every unit of electricity it consumes, it produces three to four units of heat.
Sarah Blake, senior geologist with Geological Survey Ireland said that ground-source energy — geothermal — is “available anywhere in Ireland”.
“It’s under your farm, it’s under every building in Ireland,” she said.
“Ground-source heat is completely secure, it’s not dependent on market forces, so the price you pay is the price of energy going forward.
“There will be some contribution from your electricity prices to run your pump, but in general that security of supply is a major plus point.”
However, the main barrier is cost.
“Once you start drilling, it gets really expensive, and at the same time, there are other cheaper options out there,” said Ms Blake.
“But once you overcome that initial investment, and once you get past the payback period, they do pay for themselves.
“What you get in return is a really stable heat.”
Grants extended
Walter Stephens of Panasonic Heating and Cooling Solutions Europe said that if they can save money on energy, “farmers will automatically embrace” this technology “and that, in turn, will reduce the carbon emissions that we need to do by 2030”.
“I would really like to see a free network upgrade for all the farms, supplied by the Government, to give farmers a chance to go to three-phase power,” he said.
“They don’t have that option. And if you’re going to put in heat pumps in large-scale on farms, you need three-phase, you can’t do it on a single-phase, and that will cover an array of heat pumps.”
Mr Stephens said he would also like to see it “grant-based to a certain degree”.
The Support Scheme for Renewable Heat, a Government-funded initiative administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, provides an installation grant of up to 30% for air-source, ground-source, and water-source heat pumps.
“I’d like to see grants extended and possibly where the VAT is written off for a number of years,” he said.
“I think it would be a much better way of lowering the expenditure over a period of time.”
He also said that there are not enough qualified people to service the heat pumps being installed across the country.
“It’s imperative that all the manufacturers come together and create a servicing industry for these heat pumps; it doesn’t matter what the make or model is,” he said.
“You’ve got a lot of money you’re spending on a piece of equipment; the last thing you need to do is have to replace it.
“Serving should be done once a year, and it should be mandatory.
“Panasonic is bringing in a complete servicing system, so when a product is sold, the warranty and the serving will be responsible by Panasonic because of the lack of good service engineers and people to actually service the products in the country.”
Dairy farms use a significant amount of energy, with milk cooling and water heating among the activities using the biggest proportion of energy on these enterprises.
Mr Stephens presented a case study of a dairy farmer in Clonakilty, Co Cork, who has had a heat pump system installed since last year.
The unit cost around €11,000, and installation costs were around €2,500 to €3,000.
Questions about energy efficiency
As explained by Geological Survey Ireland at this week’s Teagasc event, a heat pump uses “organised energy —mechanical power driven by electricity — to refine and condense disorganised energy — low-temperature heat”.
It produces cooling at the same time as heating, and if operated on renewable electricity, it is a zero-emissions appliance.
Deciding whether to install an air-source system or ground-source system will depend on factors such as cost, site considerations, heating demand, and location.
Barry Caslin, energy specialist with Teagasc said that the research body is training its advisors in this area, “because questions about energy efficiency are coming more to the fore on farms over the last couple of years”.
“Heat pumps, I think, have a really big role to play,” Mr Caslin said.
“Some people feel that it’s not being subsidised enough, that there isn’t enough information about it, they feel there isn’t enough independent advice about heat pump technologies.”
The SEAI this week published its National Heat Study, which states that a combination of district heating and heat pumps in homes, businesses, and industry will play a vital role in fast decarbonisation of the Irish economy.
Heat is currently responsible for 38% of energy-related CO2 emissions in Ireland, with oil, gas, and solid fuels still the primary fuels used.
The SEAI said that urgency to deliver climate targets for heating “necessitates fast deployment of technologies available today”, such as heat pumps.
Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan said that Ireland’s heat has the lowest percentage of renewable energy of any European country.
“From this low base, we can learn from other countries that are well on the way to achieving zero-carbon heating,” said Mr Ryan.
Ireland aims to reduce emissions by 51% by 2030, while the agriculture sector will have to reduce its emissions by between 22% and 30%.
The SEAI’s study shows that an “unprecedented ramp-up” of effort is needed if the heat sector is to deliver its share of the emissions cuts.
