A €30 million bio-energy park is to be set up in a south east location, it was revealed at the National Ploughing Championships in Kilkenny yesterday.

A bio-energy capital group has reached agreement with the Green Energy Service Companies (Gesco) network to build the park, which promises to be one of the most technologically advanced in the world.

The park will enable new green technology companies, agri-food businesses and leading developers of sustainable products to co-locate and share the benefits of stable energy costs.

The chosen site which is to selected next month, will be home to the first of seven regional bio-energy parks that are planned for across the country.

The project is being funded by direct investment from the Irish Gescos and a mix of equity and debt provision for capital investment from leading technology investment funds.

In the past two years a network of GESCOs throughout Ireland has invested €2.7 million in the development of biomass crop plantations, a figure expected to double to €5.4m by the summer of 2009. The bio-energy park can integrate a 50,000 tonne biomass fuel processing plant and a 15 megawatt biomass fueled Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facility.

It will also build advanced carbon neutral buildings which will house companies who need to stabilise energy costs and gain access to bio-materials.

GEGA director Ann Kehoe said, “The green energy sector can be a catalyst for attracting industry to Ireland and guarantees agriculture has a major stake in this new product economy.”

Pearse Buckley, from the SEI biomass programme, said the development of energy crops was critical to the delivery of national bio-energy targets.

The biomass plant is expected to be operational by November 2010, processing a blend of miscanthus, industrial hemp and switchgrass feedstock.

Teagasc, along with Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) and the Dep. of Agriculture, have recently launched a new DVD on the production and use of bio-energy crops titled “Willow and Miscanthus – From Field to Furnace”

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