Edenderry Power Plant Replaces Peat With Amazon Woodchip

"More than Móna" is the new advertising campaign of the semi-state body Bord na Móna. You will see this slogan on bus stops and on your TV screens. But what does this really mean?

Bord na Móna was originally set up by the Irish government in 1946 to manage Ireland's turf resources. This industry had created thousands of jobs in the midlands over the years but as of 2023 all peat harvesting is set to stop indefinitely.  This decision was made to meet the EU climate targets.

Presently Bord na Móna is heavily influenced by the minister for environment Eamonn Ryan. The minister provides much of the funding Bord na Móna receive. This has led to the company taking a plunge into the ambitions of the Green Party. The Head of HR Sharon Doyle is very much bringing the cultural policies of the Green Party with a constant push of "diversity and inclusion".

So what do Bord na Móna do now that they no longer harvest turf? Well Bord na Móna have lots of activities going on that don't really fit their name, nor their original purpose. From refuse collection and recycling, wind turbines, solar farms to importing woodchip from all over the world to generate electricity. 

There has been some recent controversy over the importation of Brazilian wood chips being burned in the former peat-burning power plant in Edenderry. While the power plant was constructed in prime location for peat burning along with being equipped with its own rail network across the bogs, it will soon be burning exclusively woodchip that has to be transported by truck. This will come from Ireland or be imported from abroad. Less than 20% of the woodchip used last year was from Ireland. 

With a 128 Mega Watt power station the plant also has 2 peakers which are gas turbine engines that run on diesel, these are 56 Mega Watts each, and are used when extra electricity is needed. The plant usually burns 1 million tonnes of peat each year. It will now be burning a lesser but still substantial weight of woodchip as it has a higher calorific value than peat.

It doesn't make any sense to import woodchip from halfway across the world, whether this be from an efficiency point of view or from a perspective of reducing emissions. This is a direct result of the government's ridiculous climate policy.

Although the cost effectiveness of importing woodchip from across the ocean is terrible, the power plant in question still managed to make around €100 million in profit last year. This is because of the farcical clown-world energy prices that the Irish people had to endure over the past year.

This biomass power plant in Edenderry is the only part of Bord na Móna that is actually making a considerable money. Consequently, the HQ in Newbridge is now hiring a load of people for what are believed to be do-nothing computer desk jobs. Meanwhile the rest of the company is tied up in mostly money losing "sustainable" initiatives.

Some serious questions need to be asked as to why a semi state body is allowed to masquerade as climate friendly while cutting down Brazilian rainforest to be transported by ship to Ireland where it will then be transported by truck to a power plant miles away from the coast?. The process of generating power from woodchip biomass is not very efficient even without taking into account the transportation of the fuel. Why is the government clamping down on Irish farmers for carbon emissions when it allows the burning of Brazilian woodchip in what was meant to be a power plant for Irish peat?