Construction BUSINESS

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is now accepting applications from organisations planning an investment in a new design project or major energy upgrade. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten TD, secured an allocation of €10 Million in Budget 2018 for the Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED) programme.

The €10 million allocation will be used to support EXEED projects delivering new best practices in the design, construction and management of buildings and facilities for optimum energy performance. The SEAI EXEED grant will provide support of up to €500,000 per year to successful organisations. The grant is open to all public and private organisations who are planning an investment project of any scale or complexity.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten TD stated: “Ireland faces very significant challenges in meeting our binding climate change targets and avoiding compliance costs. Businesses have a key role to play in ensuring that they consider energy-use and carbon emissions in infrastructure projects and energy management in operations. The EXEED Certified programme encourages innovation in how we design and manage projects and is driving the adoption of longer-term solutions to the energy challenges we face.”

Jim Gannon, CEO of SEAI, said: ​“SEAI is already supporting over 30 businesses in achieving EXEED certification and significantly reducing their energy consumption. The benefit of EXEED is that energy performance and energy management is considered at the very beginning of the design of a new build or major upgrade project, reducing energy consumption and operational costs over its lifecycle. Projects that implement the EXEED process can save up to 30% in energy use and save on capital expenditure for new investments.”

Last year, SEAI invested €1.6 million in EXEED projects ranging from educational facilities, to pharmaceutical companies to public buildings. Some projects include:

• The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) completed a lighting and controls upgrade to one of their multi-storey carparks and three external surface carparks. Lighting in for these carparks accounted for 45% of the airport’s total car park lighting load. With the new controls, DAA have improved ability to control the lighting in these car parks and have been able to reduce the power input to the lights while maintaining the required brightness. The DAA have achieved 78% energy savings in the surface carparks.
• The Monasterboice Inn, a restaurant and venue near Drogheda, constructed a new conference centre extension and dramatically upgraded the energy efficiency of their restaurant. They installed high-grade insulation throughout the building and smart lighting in their conference rooms and car park. They designed the new conference centre to maximise natural daylight and provide an attractive bright space. Renewable energy heat pumps, one of which extracted energy from an on-site stream, replaced old gas boilers, providing heating and cooling to the building. Hot air is extracted from the kitchen and harnessed to heat the water. As a result, they expect to reduce energy consumption by 45%, improving profitability, and lowering carbon emissions. The payback on this project is expected to be three and a half years.

The SEAI EXEED grant application process is now open. For further information on the scheme and details on how to apply visit seai.ie/grants