Ireland could support 80,000 green jobs, report says

Ireland could become the green energy capital of Europe and support over 80,000 green jobs, according to a new report released by Irish bio-energy firm BioPower. Launching the report last Wednesday, energy minister Eamon Ryan said: "Clean energy will provide the solution to Ireland's economic and environmental challenges, securing the investment and jobs of the future. Our wind, waves and biomass mean that we are well positioned to be a leading green economy, and to tap in to the opportunities it affords. I welcome today's report by BioPower. With the skills and innovation required, the private sector has an important role in moving Ireland in a low carbon direction."

BioPower is planning to open an anaerobic digestion facility - which will convert agricultural and urban waste into methane fuel  - in Roscommon next year. Managing director Walter Ryan-Purcell said of the report: "To our surprise, when we added it up, between all the different technologies, wind, ocean, biomass, geothermal, solar, we realised we could produce far in excess of Ireland's total energy needs." The company concluded that developing these energy sources could create up to 80,000 jobs and save up to 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

"Ireland can become self sufficient in its energy needs," Ryan-Purcell said. "Rather than spending €6 billion a year on oil we can keep this money in the country. How can this be done?  It is actually being done. Minister Gormley has brought in the planning exemption for micro-wind turbines.  Minister Eamon Ryan has introduced feed in tariffs whereby you and I can get paid for the electricity we produce from micro wind, biomass, biodigestion, hydro and other resources.  The minister for agriculture, Brendan Smith, is about to announce an €18 Million package for establishing energy crops. The semi state bodies are busy developing renewable energy."

Dr Colin Campbell, founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, also spoke at the launch. "It is now evident that the world enters the second half of the age of oil," he said. "We are not about to run out, but we will see the progressive decline in production as we deplete a finite resource formed under rare conditions in the geological past...some analysts suggests that the peak was passed last year, indirectly triggering the onset of the current deep world recession, but almost all agree that we are now close to it. Even the International Energy Agency, the OECD watchdog, so long in denial, now adopts the slogan 'let us leave oil before it leaves us.'"

The full report can be downloaded from the BioPower website .