Limerick County Council First Local Authority In Ireland To Install Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Limerick County Hall and Library Headquarters have become the first state-owned buildings in the country to install Photovoltaic solar panels to reduce their carbon footprint and energy usage.

Limerick County Council estimates that the project, delivered by leading solar electricity provider Cool Power Ltd, will reduce the local authority’s fossil energy consumption in the buildings by 15%. Photovoltaic (PV) technology converts sunlight into electricity. The majority of existing solar technologies used in state-owned premises throughout the country use sunlight to heat water only.

“When Limerick County Council embarked in the construction of new corporate buildings, one of the key issues was sustainability,” stated Chris Barry, Facilities Manager with Limerick County Council. He added, “Environmental policies are constantly changing and, as a local authority, we need to advocate renewable technologies and how they can be used in an appropriate way. This project fits in with the overall energy strategy of the council and the Governments National Climate Change Strategy 2007-12, which aims to provide for 15% of electricity to be generated from renewable by 2010.”

Limerick County Councils’ new naturally ventilated state-of-the-art County Hall was opened in 2003 and, since then, Limerick County Council has been looking at ways of complementing its highly efficient design with new technologies to provide sources of renewable energy. In 2006, the Council started looking at different proposals to install PV arrays around the building, initially for the new County Hall. Mr. Barry explained that capital costs proved to be an important issue.

He continued, “Cool Power agreed to install the system and remain the owner of the arrays, while Limerick County Council buys the green electricity generated from the system, avoiding the upfront cost of the installation. In the end, we decided to install PV arrays not only in the County Hall, but also in the new Library headquarters, Lissanalta House where the council have also installed solar panels, which provide up to 70% of domestic hot water need.”

Limerick County Council will monitor the new system for the next year to get accurate data on energy consumption but it is estimated the Council will reduce it dependence on mains electricity by 10 to 15%, generating electricity seven days a week. “The system will definitely have an impact reducing our carbon footprint and for compliance purposes with future directives. It is a significant addition to other strategies we have in place to reduce our energy usage and we are proud to be the first local authority taking this step. For example, the Council provides staff bicycles for transport between both buildings utilising the existing cycle path network”, Mr. Barry commented.

He added, “Our model can be followed by other organisations. One issue worrying companies is the capital cost, so this route could be taken as an example and it might suit other organizations. Cool Power’s method is allowing us flexibility. Depending on new requirements and how it develops in real time, we have the option to buy the array over the period of its life span or keep buying the electricity produced.” “Getting this far is a great achievement for us and we are now happy to move forward, and replicate this in other areas and new buildings. The PV arrays installation allows Limerick County Council to add on more arrays in the future to meet demand, once the infrastructure is in place. We have built a strong relationship with Cool Power. Tim Cooper is remarkably flexible and his hard work and resilience has made this happen”, Mr. Barry concluded.

Commenting on the project, Mr. Tim Cooper, Managing Director of Cool Power, said, “This project represents the first large solar PV system install on state owned buildings; the first independently financed large PV system and the first sale of 100% renewable locally generated electricity to a large customer.” He pointed out that Cool Power was unique in that it had a license from the Central Energy Regulator (CER) to trade in electricity generated from a renewable source.