31st August 2023
Ireland’s Environment, Climate, Transport & Communication Minister, Eamon Ryan, visited Dublin Waste to Energy to announce recommendations for the extension of district heating networks across the country.
The minister selected the facility as the launchpad to present a report from the Irish Government’s District Heating Steering Group to the national media.
The report recommended measures to speed up the roll-out of district heating with greater financial support, a new regulatory system, more public-private partnerships and a new centre of excellence.
Mr Ryan's statement confirmed that Dublin City Council would press ahead with a district heat network centred around DWTE, which will supply heat to more than 50,000 properties in the Poolbeg, Ringsend, Docklands and Georgian Dublin areas.
Mr Ryan said: “I’m particularly glad to be launching the District Hearing Steering Report here today, because we need to start delivering here and now. We started the first major project in April in Tallaght, where we take the waste heat from a data centre. This (Poolbeg) is the second big project that we will see delivered. It’s actually even better, since in a data centre you have to take the waste heat and increase it from 30C to 90C. Here, the waste heat is already at 90 degrees. I had a very useful tour seeing the operation. It was built with district heating in mind, looking at the kit down below, it's sitting there ready to go and we need to start tapping into that waste heat.”
Kieran Mullins, Project Director at Dublin Waste to Energy, led the Minister on an in-depth tour of the facility.
He said: "We were delighted to welcome Minister Ryan to the Dublin Waste to Energy Facility. We welcome this latest report, which is a big step towards the district heating systems that we all want to see, and we look forward to the implementation of these recommendations so that progress can continue to be made.
"District Heating is an essential part of Ireland’s decarbonisation strategy, and the proposed Dublin District Heating System, for which this plant will be the primary heat source, will be the largest District Heating network in Ireland.
"The boilers, turbine and condensers installed here have been designed to operate as a highly efficient combined heat and power facility and will supply over 90Mw of thermal energy, in addition to the electricity it already provides. Once the pipe network is installed, connected to the plant and fully operational, it will be able to provide heat for up to 50,000 homes and will reduce carbon (CO2) emissions by c.24,000tonnes every year, by reducing the use of fossil fuels.
The operation of a fully functional district heating system will increase the energy efficiency capacity of the plant from c.33% to over 80% by capturing the waste heat from the facility and using this to heat the district heating network."