SEAI Awards 2018

In 2018 Gurteen College were announced as Winners of the prestigious 2018 SEAI Award under the Energy Team of the Year category, up against major players – Dublin Airport Authority and Musgrave’s which is Irelands largest grocery distributor of market-leading brands (including SuperValu & Centra). Info at: https://www.seai.ie/…/sustainable-en…/seai-awards-finalists/

    Prize Winners – Mike Pearson, second from left

See articles below demonstrating Incredible energy efficiency in action at Gurteen College: There are 186 photovoltaic (PV) panels installed.  A total of €45,000 was invested into the installation of the PV panels and it is anticipated that they will produce over 40,000kW of electricity each year, with the addition of the wind turbine savings reducing the college’s electricity bill by over 30%. Installation of LED lighting across the whole campus and farm will further reduce energy consumption. Other sustainable innovations have been 80 acres (32 Ha) planted for willow harvested a 1/3 annually in rotation to fuel the modern high efficiency bio-mass boilers. The addition of extra insulation in the college has proven beneficial in the total energy use. Energy efficiency work and sustainability has continued in the recently opened dairy with a variety of measures.

Kenneth Flynn – Farm Manager; Judy & Mike Pearson at the ceremony

Variable speed vacuum pumps, plate cooler heat recovery from milk (which will be used to heat a classroom in the near future) with the water then being used for to supply stock drinking water. Heat recovery from bulk tank cooling allows 30 litres of 50 degree hot water for every 100 litres of milk cooled and rainwater harvesting all contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of this new unit.A big thank you to the Tipperary Energy Agency – https://tippenergy.ie/ – who informed us about funding available through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s Better Energy Communities Scheme and carried out an audit. As Tipperary Energy Agency were able to project manage, it meant that we could conduct various projects that were too big for us to project manage ourselves and have improved our carbon footprint hugely. Gurteen College has great respect for the support given and the inspiring work of the Tipperary Energy Agency.

You can read the story here: http://bit.ly/2O1M4Yp #sustainabletipp

Click here to read another article on the win http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/gurteen-college-takes-top-prize-at-sustainable-energy-awards/