Cities4PEDs Atlas_November 2021.pdf

for groups to implement. The second set of
calls was focused on community energy and
asked for expertise, and will probably lead to
more concrete results. There is always the risk
that citizens could get annoyed by starting the
project, especially if the project is not working.
When COVID came along, the projects were
inclined to not work out as planned anymore.
The strategy of the +CityXChange Team was to
put projects which fit thematically together.
The Positive Energy Champions Campaign is
being run in collaboration with the University
of Limerick and +CityxChange partners. The
Positive Energy Champions are citizens of
Limerick, who take Positive Energy Actions and
share their knowledge and experiences with
their communities and fellow citizens during the
twenty weeks of the Positive Energy Champions
journey. As Limerick is small, everybody knows
one of the energy champions and can relate to
the individual motivation.
One of them e.g. recently bought an electric
car, another one is renovating a building for
homeless and took advantage from the tax
regulations for renovations.
On the City Engage Weeks, progress updates
are shared with the general public and citizens
can engages other citizens to take a first step
in the energy transition. Here new projects are
introduced and progress updates are given.
Energy infrastructure
• Heating: Most of the buildings are heated
by decentralized gas boilers and are
individually metered as there is no district
heating network. Several local initiatives
have sprouted, such as the local café reusing
waste heat or the boat club using
electric equipment.
In Ireland, energy is mostly generated by fossil
fuels. The “Money point power station” was one
of the largest generation plants in Ireland, which
was fired by coal and shut down in 2021. As
there is just one electricity company in Ireland,
the entire Irish grid can and has to be greened
at once. Therefore, the company invests into
offshore wind. Currently 44% of the national
electricity mix comes from renewable energy
production.
A CHP system boosted by heat pumps is
envisioned by MPower. The resultant heat
would then be directly used and the electricity
would by default be used for heat pumps since
feeding into the grid is not being remunerated in
Ireland currently, as there are no feed-in tariffs
yet. However, with the arrival of a national
legislation for Energy Communities by the end
of 2021, feeding into the electricity network
could be remunerated.
A 100% community owned energy community
is planned to be set up in the Georgian District.
According to Terence Connolly, the community
is taking the risk, that the citizens have too
little technical knowledge. In his opinion, the
energy system should be 51% owned by the
community, while developers own the rest,
as developers have an important role to build
the infrastructure and run it. The legislation
is moving into a different direction to enable
100% community owned Renewable Energy
Communities with having the community in
charge of building the infrastructure.
Mobility infrastructure
Most infrastructure is/has been constructed
with an eye on catering to the car. A shift
towards walking and biking is hard but highly
desirable.
• Electricity: One goal of the project is to
install a tidal turbine and make it part of the
Energy Community. First tests of the tidal
turbine will happen in October 2021. Another
goal is that 3-4 MWH should be installed by
the community.
Working document
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