COMMERCIAL HEATING & PLUMBING
ASSOCIATION – IRDEA
IRISH DISTRICT ENERGY ASSOCIATION (IRDEA) STATES DISTRICT ENERGY IS SET TO DELIVER SIGNIFICANT DECARBONISATION IN IRELAND’S HEAT SECTOR… Ireland has the building blocks to roll out large scale District Energy
Yvonne Murphy, newly appointed CEO of IrDEA.
F ounded in 2017, the Irish District Energy Association (IrDEA) was established to promote and support the development of low-carbon District Energy in Ireland. IrDEA currently represents members from a variety of sectors across consultancy and technology providers, the public sector and academia.
It is the only association in Ireland dedicated to supporting the District Energy industry. This year, IrDEA turned a corner by
appointing its first CEO, Yvonne Murphy, to lead the organisation. The appointment comes at a time of significantly increased ambition for the sector in Ireland. Renewed government targets for district heating, announced as part of the latest Climate Action Plan 2023, have tasked industry with delivering up to 0.8 TWh of district heating installed capacity by 2025 and up to 2.5 TWh by 2030. If achieved, this will be equivalent to connecting 80,000 homes by 2025 and 250,000 by 2030. Yvonne recognises that much work must be done, and quickly, to achieve these targets. But she errs on the side of optimism in saying, “The beauty of district energy is that the technology is proven, and the expertise exists to deliver it at scale now to kickstart the decarbonisation of Ireland’s heat sector.” About 40% of total energy use in Ireland is accounted for by heat demand, with residential home heating making up 25% of energy-related CO 2 emissions. Having been slow to decarbonise, the heat sector is under pressure to ramp up decarbonisation. Yvonne contends that existing technology and scalable solutions can be rolled out quickly to speed this up. With the SEAI’s 2022 Heat Study indicating that up to 54% of Irish buildings could benefit from district heating, district heating could be a particularly important part of that. “This is where IrDEA comes in,” Yvonne
said. Since its foundation, IrDEA has worked to address the gap in knowledge, capacity, standards and regulations on district energy. This has been done by building the organisation’s membership and drawing on the considerable expertise within its ranks and among external experts. Engagement with key stakeholders has also been a key part of the organisation’s strategy to promote and support the industry, which Yvonne highlights is the key to identifying and ensuring the adoption of practical solutions. With the organisation primed to scale up its efforts to support and promote the development of the industry in the coming years, IrDEA and district energy are set to become a significant part of the Irish heating sector as it evolves and moves towards decarbonisation.
• Industry tasked to deliver up to 0.8 TWh of district heating installed capacity by 2025 and 2.5 TWh by 2030. • Equivalent to connecting 80,000 homes by 2025 and 250,000 by 2030. Climate Action Plan 2023
E: info@districtenergy.ie www.districtenergy.ie
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PLUMBING & HEATING MAGAZINE | 47
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