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The Bioenergy Map is an output from the National Heat Study

Background

In 2021, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) commissioned Element Energy and Ricardo Energy and Environment to work with SEAI on the National Heat Study. As part of this study, grass and slurry resources have been analysed spatially to produce a national map of those resources at a resolution of 5km x 5 km squares.

Under different scenarios modelled in the National Heat Study, these maps identify the locations of potential excess grass and slurry which may be suitable for gas production through anaerobic digestion (AD). These modelled scenarios are a Business As Usual scenario with current policies, a Decarbonised Gas scenario which utilises improved sustainable farm management practices to produce more grass silage than current levels, and a notional Rapid Progress scenario which also utilises the improved sustainable farm management practices but also includes additional land-use change where the national herd is slightly reduced, releasing further lands for grass silage and slurry for AD purposes.

Please refer to the SEAI Sustainable Bioenergy for Heat report for further information. 

What you will find in this map

Potential Annual Gas Production from Slurry

  • Location of the potential biogas resource from slurry located within 5 km square grid (GWh biogas/year)

Potential Annual Gas Production from Silage

  • Location of the potential resource of silage for AD (in GWh of biogas production)
  • Note that grass silage cannot be used on its own to produce biogas, it must be mixed with slurry to ensure that the process is sustainable. The silage resource map must be considered alongside the slurry resource map.
View the bioenergy map

Reports

You can find various reports on our bioenergy page.