The Government’s Ireland 2040 Plan identified the town of Portlaoise as a national demonstration project for implementing sustainable and community driven urban renewal.
Portlaoise has been allocated funding to advance towards the status of ‘Low Carbon Town’ as part of the Ireland 2040 demonstration project.
As part of the project, several major public buildings have been identified as areas where Portlaoise could reduce the town’s collective carbon footprint.
Hospital
Hospitals consume a lot of energy – both electricity and heat.
It turns out that the energy consumption per bed is similar to the average energy consumption per household.
The 200-bed hospital in Portlaoise, therefore, would be comparable to 3% of energy consumption in residential sector.
Prisons
Portlaoise has 2 prisons – Midlands Prison and Portlaoise Prison – with a cumulative capacity of 1,100 prisoners.
It also has an Irish Prison Service College, responsible for training facilities.
The Irish Prisons annual report shows that at the national level there were 9,000 prisoners across all facilities in Ireland whose total energy demand was 82 Million kWh (electricity and heating).
According to the capacity of Portlaoise prisons, the fraction would translate to approximately 9% of overall electricity demand on the town, and 10% of heating demand.
This service has a much higher energy intensity per employee compared to the consumption per employee in commercial and public services based on state average according to the SEAI Energy in Ireland 2018.
Therefore, there have been calls for the prison service to be monitored for energy efficiency levers.
Council Buildings
In 2019, Laois County Council Premises in Portlaoise consumed 1.1 GWh electricity and 2.6GWh of Gas.
This accounts for 2% of all energy demand in the town.
The LIEN (Large Industry Energy Network) which is run by SEAI is a good source on how to improve energy efficiency in industrial operations.
Additionally, a fund for community energy projects across Ireland was launched recently.
The scheme supports substantial investment in energy upgrades to homes, community, and commercial buildings.
This includes rented properties, businesses, sports and community facilities, public sector buildings and schools.
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