Innovative Tipperary company receives funding under Community Climate Action Programme

Deputy Michael has welcomed the news that Energy Communities Tipperary Cooperative Company Ltd has been granted funding for their Energy Saving Champions project under Strand 2 of the Community Climate Action Programme.

The company’s objective is to fund the development of an 'Energy Saving Champions' project which will encourage greater energy savings and energy efficiency among families, households and communities.

Facilitators will be trained to provide guidance to people on how best to reduce their domestic energy consumption and measures they can take to improve their energy efficiency. A competitive element is built into the programme so that families, households, and communities can compete against each other.

"This is a very worthwhile and timely project and I wish the company well with their endeavours’ says Deputy Lowry.
Energy Communities Tipperary Cooperative Company Ltd came about from a pilot scheme in the Drombane/Upperchurch community in rural Tipperary in 2012/2013. ECTC was formed in 2014, as 4 communities came together to carry out energy efficiency works on older houses and community buildings, leveraging grants from the SEAI under the Better Energy Communities Scheme.

Pictured above: Deputy Michael Lowry

111 houses and 2 community buildings were upgraded, receiving a grant of €643k and generating 1GWh (Gigawatt/hour) in energy savings.

With this success, ECTC was formally founded in 2015 and grew to include 8 communities.
The board of ECTC is made up of unpaid, volunteer Directors from the participating communities as well as one each from North Tipperary LEADER Partnership (NTLP) and the Tipperary Energy Agency (TEA).

In 2015 and 2016, there were 261 houses and 8 community buildings upgraded, receiving a grant of €2m and generating 2.1GWh in energy savings. In 2017 and 2018 .304 houses and 10 community buildings were upgraded with a grant of €2.8m and 3 GWh in energy savings. In 2018 they piloted Deep Retrofit with 11 houses and in 2019/20 they retrofitted 10 houses through the Deep retrofit Pilot scheme throughout the 8 communities.

The Community Climate Action Programme supports projects and initiatives that facilitate community climate action through education, capacity building and learning by doing. The programme is being run by Pobal, on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications

18 projects from around the country were selected from 72 applications. These represent a diverse range of activities across the five programme themes (Home and Energy; Food and Waste; Shopping and Recycling; Transport; Local Climate and Environment).

Work on all 18 community climate action projects will begin shortly. For more information about the projects please visit: https://www.pobal.ie.

Strand 1 of the Community Climate Action Programme will begin taking applications towards the end of 2022 / early 2023. This strand of the programme will support communities, large and small, rural and urban, to build low-carbon communities in a considered and structured way.

Strand 1 requires the appointment of dedicated Climate Officers in Local Authorities to guide the transition for these low-carbon communities before it can get underway.