renewable energy

Kedco plc and Agrikomp GmBH announce the signing of a joint venture agreement and the setting up of a joint venture company called Agrikomp UK to build agricultural anaerobic digestion plants in the UK and Ireland. Both parties equally own the company. The plants will convert grass and slurry into electricity and heat. The new company Agrikomp UK will be based in Cork, Ireland with an office in Stoneleigh in the UK to service its rapidly growing UK customer base. The company will employ 6 people within the first 12 months of operation. Kedco and Agrikomp have been working together for the past 12 months as a result the company has 20 projects in its pipeline already. The vast majority of these are in Great Britain and Northern Ireland where government incentives for the generation of renewable energy are very favourable.

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Carbon Tax is where householders and businesses will be charged a tax based on usage of fossil fuels which include oil, gas and coal. These fuels lead to carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere which is a significant contributor to climate change.

The impact this would have, on households most specifically, would be quiet significant. The cost of heating the home and the cost of running a car would rise substantially especially for those households where oil is the primary fuel source.

Under the Kyoto Agreement, Ireland is legally bound to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide it emits from 70.3 million tonnes in 2005 to 56.3 million tonnes or lower in 2020. It is suggested that a carbon tax is one of the key ways to reduce our emissions.

The following table outlines the potential tax applied at 3 different levels;

* This is how we feel the carbon tax may be implemented.

Some examples of how the above table would apply to your household:

• If the Government introduces carbon tax at the rate of €20/ton of CO², then a householder burning 2,000 litres of Fuel oil will pay 2,000 x 5.32cents = €106.40 in carbon tax alone – this is added to the purchase price of the diesel oil.
• Likewise, if it’s coal, and the tax is decided to be €30/tonne of CO², then the householder will pay 1000 x 9.12 cents = €91.20 per tonne of coal burned.

You can see the enormous effect this will have on all fossil fuel prices, once it goes ahead.
What is now being debated is the level of tax/tonne of CO²

Calculate your carbon footprint today or learn about Kedco’s renewable energy solutions and how they will reduce your carbon taxes.

Ok, I live in West Cork and sometimes I need to have some instant heat at this time of year.

Maybe we’ve been out for the day and we need to heat the living room quickly when we get home in the evening or maybe it was a warm day with a cold night?

I always like to consider the environment when I heat the house. I live in a rented house so have no control over the source of central heating which is oil fueled. If it was my house I would have a wood pellet boiler.
I have solar water heating, and while it heats water no matter how little sunshine, there have been few days this spring that it reached maximum temperature. So it needs a little help.

I used to just switch on the oil and forget about it but now I’ve discovered that Eco heat logs are the perfect solution. They are CO2 neutral, excellent value for money and create UNBELIEVEBALE heat!
So next time you need heat quickly, don’t turn on the oil, light some heatlogs

Looking at ways to reduce your home heating bill?

Do you know that the Sun is one of the worlds unlimited energy sources, and you can tap into this energy by installing a solar heating system. So while we live in a country that umbrellas are a constant accessory we still receive similar solar energy to our counter parts in Central Europe!

A horizontal surface of 1m2 receives an average of between 1,000 and 1,100 kWh of solar energy per year, similar to that of central Europe. This energy is provided by both direct sunlight (40%) and indirect sunlight (60%) and can be harnessed in many ways to heat your home, provide hot water and generate electricity.

There are many different types of collectors but the majority of collectors fall within the categories of flat panel and/or evacuated tubes. The solar systems generally incorporate a roof mounted solar collector,which receives direct and indirect sunlight and changes it into heat. This heat may be used to provide for hot water, or in a combined system, for space and hot water needs.

Evacuated tubes and flat plate collectors are not a new concept, they have been used widely in solar water heating systems since the 1970’s.  At the end of 2003, approx. 12 million m2 of solar thermal collectors were installed in the EU.

Read how a Kedco Solar heating  System provides one customer with FREE hot water from April to October

Read further to see how Kedco’s solar heating systems work and also how one customer has gained FREE hot water from April to October through their Kedco Solar Heating System.

Also you can see the solar heating grants available to you through SEI.

Kedco supplies both flat panels and evacuated tube solar water heating systems to both the residential and commercial market throughout the island of Ireland.

Find how more about our  Solar Heating pricing now

We  have stainless steel and copper tank solar systems available through our online store.

Are you one of the many people out there that are looking to build your own home, maybe planning an extension, or carrying out home improvements? Well if the answer is yes and you are forward thinking, you’ll want to avail of the many alternative energy grants available to you.

Currently, there are many energy grants available to homeowners who are installing renewable energy technology. Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), were set up by the government as Ireland’s national energy agency and administrates the greener homes grant scheme for the Irish government. The greener homes scheme provides assistance to homeowners who intend to purchase a new renewable energy heating system. Technologies included in the grant scheme are wood pellet boilers, wood pellet stoves and solar heating systems amongst others.

Kedco is an approved supplier under the Greener Homes Scheme and our eligible technologies are all listed below.

Kedco will assist you in selecting the best renewable energy system for your home and assist in preparation of your Greener Homes Scheme Grant application, which must be approved before any work is undertaken.

The amount of the grants is fixed and vary according to the technology chosen. The grant covers the cost of the purchase of the system. The product must be listed on the SEI’s Registered Products List with the installation of the technology being carried out by an installer who also appears on the SEI’s Registered Installer List.

A breakdown of the grants for the technologies listed above are as follows:

Solar Thermal Space and/or Hot water Heating (Evacuated Tube) - €300/m2 (max of 6m2)

Solar Thermal Space and/or Hot water Heating (Flat Plate) - €250/m2 (max of 6m2)

Wood Chip or Pellet Stove - €800

Wood Chip or Pellet Stove with integral boiler - €1,400

Wood Chip or Pellet Boiler - €2,500

Wood Gasification Boiler - €2,000

NOTE: Product must be listed, at the date of application, on SEI’s list of conforming equipment (available on request or online)

You will find more information here on renewable energy grants or

Visit the SEI Greener Homes Scheme website.

Waste prevention, using less raw materials and energy recovery are the three activities that businesses believe will be crucial to saving them money in the face of economic recession.

More than 85% of the companies questioned by sustainable business advisors Envirowise said the three changes would be the best environmental measures to make their businesses more profitable.

The findings follow a warning from the British Chamber of Commerce that firms are facing “a difficult and risky climate” in the next six to nine months. Read the rest of this entry »

Some 2.3 million people work in the renewable energy industry or supplier industries across the planet, according to a new report.

The World Watch Institute said while the renewable energy industry was growing, the coal, oil and natural gas sectors were downsizing year after year, with high-cost production equipment replacing workers.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost in the UK, US, China, Germany and South Africa in the last two decades, the WWI said in its Vital Signs Update report.

“Renewables are poised to tackle our energy crisis and create millions of new jobs worldwide,” according to senior researcher Michael Renner.

“Meanwhile, fossil fuel jobs are increasingly becoming fossils themselves, as coal mining communities and others worry about their livelihoods.”

The WWI said Germany, Spain and Denmark in renewable energy development and green jobs as a result of strong government support.

Across the planet, the solar thermal industry employs at least 624,000 people last year, with workers in the wind power industry reaching 300,000.

More than one million people work in the biomass and biofuels sector, the US think tank said.

Are you one of the many people looking to alternative sources of energy, are aware of the buzz terms but don’t know exactly what they all mean ? Well it’s time to get educated and here on the Kedco Blog, we will try to provide you with as much information as you could  ever need to get yourself familiarised with the ‘in terms’ solar energy,  solar panels, Bio-ethanol fires, wood pellets, wood pellet boilers, wood stoves, anaerobic digestion, gasification and biomass heating etc.

So lets start with solar energy, the SEI have some great information on solar energy and here’s what they have to say about it.

Solar energy is the mother of most renewable energies on earth. The sun powers natural cycles on earth like the wind, water flow and plant growth. Read the rest of this entry »