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Displaying items by tag: Carbon Emissions

Waterways Ireland is involved with the European project Green WIN, which aims to address excess energy use and high carbon emissions generated by pumping equipment and systems to keep waterways operational.

This project is funded under Priority 2 ‘Low Carbon’ of the European Regional Development Fund Interreg North-West Europe 2014-2020 and is led by Canal and River Trust (UK).

The other project partners are Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat (NL), Université of Liège (BE), Voies Navigables de France (FR) and Vlaamse Landmaatschappij (BE).

The project aims to use trials of low-carbon water pumping technologies, systems or processes to show north-west European water management organisations how energy consumption and CO2 emissions for such operations can be significantly reduced.

From these trials, and by demonstrating a methodical approach that can be used after the project is complete, Green WIN aim to achieve 15% energy savings and CO2 reductions at 11 trial sites in Ireland, the UK and France by 2021, reducing energy use by 778,000 kWh and CO2 emissions by 195 tonnes.

Main outputs and pilots will be an infrastructure audit, technology trials, investment, procurement and business planning guidelines (a Greener Pumping Technologies Toolkit) and an established support network.

Green WIN will roll these out to other water management organisations by encouraging them to carry out new installations as their existing equipment reaches end of life.

The project will also aim to influence change in behaviours as well as legislation to reach a greater take up of greener technologies, lower energy usage, reduced emissions and more organisations involved in taking forward the technologies demonstrated in the project.

For more information on the project, visit the GreenWIN website.

Published in Inland Waterways

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.