The Irish Times
Summary
To figure out the future, you sometimes need to look to the past. In the winter of 1973, as Europe shivered its way through the oil crisis, the Danish government was under intense pressure. With 90 per cent of its energy coming from oil, the drop in supplies from the Middle East saw temporary factory closures, cuts to street lighting and even a ban on Sunday driving. Something, it was decided, would have to change.
A case might reasonably be made that the dispersed population of 1970s Ireland wouldn’t have been suited to district heating, which works at greatest efficiency when it’s deployed in densely-populated urban areas. There may have been some truth to that argument back then, but it’s an argument that no longer holds much water.
The Government has already endorsed the benefits of district heating. The programme for government commits the Coalition to accelerating the rollout of these schemes, while the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland estimates it could meet 54 per cent of Ireland’s building heat demand.
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