Energy efficiency upgrade to save €129,000 per year
By Maurice Garvey
BALLYFERMOT Sports and Fitness Centre and Bluebell Community and Resource Centre, are among seven Dublin City Council’s sports centres scheduled for an energy efficiency upgrade.
The project will include a new combined heat and power system to efficiently heat the swimming pool in Ballyfermot.
Ballyfermot Sports and Fitness Centre
Dublin City Council has awarded a new Energy Performance Contract (EPC) to Noel Lawler, Green Energy Solutions.
The local authority say the contract will save them up to €129,000 on its energy costs per annum and reduce carbon emissions by 321 tonnes.
DCC is working with Codema – Dublin’s Energy Agency – and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to implement the EPC model, which they say, will play an important role in achieving targets set out in DCC’s Climate Change Action Plan 2019 -2024.
The project will also achieve average energy savings of more than 35 per cent per year through a range of upgrades, which includes new LED lighting, improved building control systems and renewable energy measures through the installation of solar photovoltaic panels.
In 2016, an EPC pilot project upgraded at another three city council sports and fitness centres, led to energy savings of 42 per cent.
“The EPC model is very successful and is well-established in countries such as Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, so it is great to see it getting a foothold in Ireland,” said Joe Hayden, Senior Executive Engineer with Codema.
“EPC not only provides the council with the security of guaranteed energy savings, it also saves on the cost of maintaining these upgrades over the lifetime of the contract.”
Jim Gannon, Chief Executive, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, said projects like these helped save the public sector “€1 billion in energy savings in the last decade.”
This EPC contract will run for eight years. Works are due to be completed by the end of 2019.
