Local TD and Minister for Education and Youth, Hildegarde Naughton, has announced that the Government will support Galway’s pilot district heating project to be located beside Galway Crystal in Merlin Park.
Nine pilot district heating systems nationwide, including Galway’s, will benefit from a €5 million grant from Climate Action Fund.
“As we know, district heating is a system that takes heat generated in a central location and distributes it in the form of heated water through insulated pipes to provide warmth and hot water to homes and businesses. District heating will help decarbonise both new developments and existing buildings at scale, with the potential to cost-effectively deliver up to 4.6 TWh of heat in Ireland,” the Minister noted.
“The €5 million support package for the pre-construction costs is being used as a pilot fund to bridge the gap for district heating projects until significant capital funding is in place, and to ensure that efficient district heating projects are in position to avail of this future funding,” Minister Naughton said.
“Importantly, district heating can reduce energy use and offers a low cost, low carbon heating solution. It achieves this by using centralised heat sources and generating heat more efficiently. Additionally, maintenance and repairs are managed by a single entity, which can be more cost-effective than maintaining individual systems separately,” the Minister commented.
“I very much welcome this funding and look forward to seeing the Galway district heating pilot advance through the next stage towards construction,” she concluded.
