Rachel Martin: The time for green energy is now... so policy-makers need to act quickly

Our policy-makers need to make their minds up about what action they want farmers to take or risk losing farmer engagement.

Picture: Sunstream Energy Solutions

You wouldn’t think these were pivotal times for farming from a dander through the 37km of metal walkways at Ratheniska this week, where upbeat punters reconnect after a long three years without the Ploughing.

Pictures from this week show a vibrant, thriving rural Ireland bouncing back from the doldrums of lockdown, yet every now and again, you’ll hear a mention of how expensive diesel or fertiliser has got or how much someone paid for their meal last month.

It’s a reminder that the Ploughing is a bubble outside of reality — and sometimes we really need that.

Beneath the surface, the weariness of successive challenges of Brexit, Covid, labour shortages, input cost, uncertain future due to climate, and potential blackouts this winter is taking its toll, and it’s important to recognise the benefits both to body and mind of making the investment in a relief milker or stockman and taking a day or two off — even if it things aren’t quite done the way you would do it!

Uncertainty is never easy. Often the anxiety of what the future may bring is worse than whatever change may, in fact, come.

Through Nitrates Action Plans, CAP reforms, disease outbreaks, and supply chain disruption, farmers have always adapted and delivered.

Farmers can take some comfort from the president’s words of disgust on below-cost selling, which of course made the front page of this paper on Wednesday.

However, genuine action is needed — and quickly — to establish new norms for what margins and businesses will look like ahead.

Among the crowds, I have heard considerable appetite for new green technologies — and they aren’t afraid to ask.

One showgoer patiently waiting to speak to Charlie McConalogue told me I had “beat him to it” when I asked the agriculture minister about support for on-farm green energy projects.

The minister said it would be a “policy priority” explaining that he would shortly be announcing farmers would be eligible for 60% grant aid under TAMS for solar panels, and his department was working with Eamon Ryan to ensure on-farm energy can benefit from tariffs as well as working with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien planning exemption for solar panels installed on rooves.

It’s clear that Irish farmers are eager and willing to play their part to get ready for the future. However, they are cautious that in these times where costs need to be reined in and future margins could be tight that acting too soon could mean they miss out on future support.

Our policy-makers need to make their minds up about what action they want farmers to take and spell out exactly what support they will be offered so that those who want to charge ahead can do so can avail of both the cost savings and environmental benefits of investing in greener more efficient technology.

If they are genuine, it is important that they strike while the appetite is there and schemes are put into effect quickly, before too much frustration creeps in or pressure on energy markets eases. The opportunity for green energy is now.

You don’t need to know me that well to know that my favourite place to hang out is the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena.

It is exactly the spirit of ingenuity and practicality which gives me optimism for the agricultural industry.

Innovative concepts like Sunstream Energy’s vertical solar panels (featured on P10) seek to overcome the barriers this technology faces on specific subsectors within the industry.

By placing the solar panels vertically, it shifts the time of day when power is generated to times when the sun is lowest in sky, rather than midday as with roof-based or traditional solar PV systems.

As I saw on the stand, if the panels are placed far enough apart, they have the added benefit of allowing farm machinery to pass between them, allowing silage, for example, to be cut. I couldn’t help but think they might have the added (but not advertised) benefit of helping in times when you’re trying to separate out a sick cow or calving by yourself as they almost look like large fences running up and down the field.

Granted, it’s out there and still rather visually intrusive, but it’s exactly this kind of disruptive and innovative thinking which is a good place to start.

It’s easy to forget this week is the result of the hard work and dedication of the staggering 2,400 volunteers — and it is absolutely a credit to them.

These are normal people from all walks of life with their own busy lives. Then add the extra pressures of hosting the 67th World Ploughing Championships with just five months’ notice, and the 2022 show is truly something for Ireland as a whole to be proud of.

There’s a feelgood factor as the weather has shone on Laois this week — let’s hope my wellies can stay in their box in the press room, this week’s temporary Farm Exam HQ, for the final day today.

I hear there’s a drone costing €90,000 lurking somewhere (although with current inflation goodness knows how much that could be next month) so I’m off to take a look!