Large crowd in attendance at Tipperary Town Community Energy Fair

A crown of over fifty people attended the recent Community Energy Fair in Tipperary Town to hear about the Tipperary Town Community Energy Plan, and the supports and grants available to homeowners, businesses, and community groups to implement climate adaptation projects. The event was held in Tipperary Excel Centre on Thursday January 18^th at 7pm and was organised by Tipperary Town Revitalisation and Tipperary Tidy Towns, who jointly commissioned the Town Energy Plan under the SEAI funded Sustainable Energy Communities (SEC) Programme.

Tipperary Cahir Cashel Municipal District Cathaoirleach Declan Burgess opened the event by underlining the importance of towns and communities tackling the energy issue, and by commending everyone involved in the event. Dan Fennell of ORS Consultants took attendees through the Plan which found that the town had an estimated annual energy spend in excess of € 30m, and that there are over 2,000 homes in and around the town that would be suitable for deep retrofitting. This would keep a significant sum of money in the local economy, while contributing to climate mitigation and addressing fuel poverty issues.

Attendees also heard from Ruth Buggie, SEC Programme Manager who gave details of the various grants available from SEAI, Marie O’Donnell, Tipp County Council Climate Action Office who took attendees through the € 700k Community Climate Action Fund which is currently open to community groups until February 27^th, and Ita Horan, Local Enterprise Office Tipperary who spoke about the broad range of supports available  through the Local Enterprise Office which includes the Green for Business Programme aimed at driving sustainability and costs savings within the business sector.

Katie Lonergan from Tipperary Education and Training Board also highlighted the range of courses provided by the ETB locally in the Construction Skills Training Centre on Bansha Road which includes Drylining, Near Zero Energy Building (NZEB), Insulation, Plastering, Tiling and others.

Paul O’Callaghan, Chairperson of Tipperary Tidy Towns felt that the event was a huge success “It is great to see such a huge turnout and it demonstrates how people are becoming more climate conscious. We all have a responsibility to move towards a more sustainable way of living and this Energy Plan sets out a roadmap for the town for the coming months and years which we will be working hard to progress.”