Community organisation scoops renewable energy award

Gorey Courtown Forest Park Ltd was given the award by Sustainable Energy Ireland for helping to reduce the energy costs of a local leisure centre the company had constructed.

Project manager Pat O’Donnell was on hand to collect the award, with judges stating that the development was “innovative with a high replication potential”, according to the Gorey Guardian.

To help reduce the leisure centre’s energy costs, the company added a biomass boiler and wind turbine, which will help contribute to an energy saving of 26 per cent.

The addition of the 75kw Vestas Wind Turbine to provide renewable energy to the leisure centre represents the first time this has been done in Ireland.

A group of local business people set up the organisation in 1990 as a way of creating employment in the community, developing facilities and extending the tourist season in the area.