Alternative energy in need of investment

WIND, wave and wood should become key elements of the country’s fuel supply but much more research and investment is needed to get the ideas off the ground.

An Oireachtas committee called for a series of “ambitious and visionary” targets to kickstart the industry in renewable energies. They said renewable resources should replace 20% of the country’s total energy needs by 2020 and 50% by 5050.

One immediate measure would be to boost the production and use of biofuels, which can be made from rapeseed oil, recovered vegetable oils from the catering industry and beef tallow from the rendering industry, and bioethanol which is extracted from sugar beet and wheat.