Renewables German Style

Some photo's showing pics of sites taken on our recent trip to Germany.  I've been to Germany a lot over the past number of years and every time I go, I'm always struck by how well they have integrated renewable energy into their everyday lives.  We normally think of Germany as a country dedicated to heavy engineering, finance and manufacturing, however, at both a local and central government level, they have a great appreciation of the rural and agricultural sectors which make up such an important part of their economy and indeed their country.  I've said it before I know, but they are simply light years ahead of us in terms of attitude to renewables.  Their encouragement both legislatively and financially for Wind, Solar and Anaerobic Digestion technologies is fantastic.  Should our government wish to have Ireland adopt such an approach, there is no need for reports taking years to complete and thousands of pages to cover, they need only take a fairly cheap 1.5 hour plane trip to Germany, hire a car and drive around.  They can then take the German renewable policy directives, translate them, stick a Harp on the front page and hey presto, job done.  No re-inventing of the wheel required, just adoption of a tried and tested system that works.

Lecture over, here's some photos.

Making Slurry Delivery

Making Silage Delivery

A look inside a tank under construction, the prop is the agitator

View from above at the mixing screw of the "Moving Floor" dry feed stock system

That's me looking into a field moving floor

This pump by Vogelsang, includes a rotor cutter.  This circular spinning blade cuts up fibrous material in the substrates. the benefit? Stops your pump getting blocked and provides more solid surface area for bacteria to feed upon, more bacteria, more gas, everyone is happy. 

 

The generator, this one is rated at 1MW



Removing the generator from position to carry out routine maintenance



"Tanks for the memories"

Miles to go....

Well we finally now have our website up and running, check it out by all means, http://www.agrigrid.ie.  We've had a lot of interest in our little company and as the days pass, it is becoming more and more apparent that people in general are very positive towards our endevour.  We are talking in a number of parties at the moment who are very interested in developing sites and the view of local authorities is looking quite favourable with regard planning permissions. This is fantastic because of the obvious benefits, not least of all much needed employment.

I suppose the simple fact of the matter is that we as a small country need to start approaching things differently.  We've had a go at the whole property thing and well, that hasn't exactly gone to plan.  We continue to have a fairly strong high tech sector and exports are rising month on month.  What we need to do now is to look at different ways to invest, we need to look at taking a more long term view, we need to be more responsible in the way we invest and in what we invest.  What we need to be aiming for is 30, 40 and 50 years down the line.  We we need to keep our eye on is securing our future through investment in our infrastructure, our energy security and our eductaional needs.  The key to getting back on our feet is to make sure that when our economy bounces back, (and it will), that we have the necessary tools to cope and advance at a rate faster than our competitors.  That our road, rail, airports and seaports can cope with the demands that will undoubtably be required of them.  We need to ensure that our electricity, gas and telecoms grids are maintained and improved.  We need to ensure that we do not fall prey to increasing world fuel prices by investing in re-newables.  We need to ensure that our standards of eductaion are such that our children can expect to grow up, live, work and earn a living in the country of their birth.  That they can become our literal future and not just figurative, that they can be world beaters in terms of innovation and research and development.

To get there we need to regain something, we need to regain our confidence.  Not the struting, swaggering confidence of the Celtic Tiger years, but a new quiet and calm confidence, a reasoned confidence.  President Obama and U2 reminded us that that it was Irish hands who helped build America, I'll go further and say it was Irish hands who helped build the world.  We have done it before under more adverse conditions, we can do it again and we will.

To conclude, Robert Frost told us that there was "miles to go before I sleep", that is true for our country, but lets start the journey, it will be tough at times, but it will be worth it.