There was delight at IDP this week when the team were notified that the work carried out with Inishowen Sustainable Energy Communities (SEC) has been shortlisted for the 2021 SEAI Energy Awards in the “Inspirational Energy Community” category.
Inishowen Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) is the result of a strong collaboration between Inishowen Development Partnership (IDP), Inishowen Co-Op, Donegal County Council, and a diverse range of stakeholders across the community.
Shauna McClenaghan, Joint CEO IDP (pictured above) says “we are thrilled with this nomination as this all started with a common purpose focus on sustainability and was resourced by the SEAIs Sustainable Energy Communities Programme. Our vision is that the Inishowen Peninsula will be carbon neutral by the year 2050”.
Following a year long journey of conversations, consultations, awareness raising, research and analysis, Inishowen Development Partnership and its SEC launched the Inishowen SEC Energy Master Plan (EMP). It is a comprehensive publication for Inishowen as a renewable energy centre of excellence, using a whole community approach. The well-attended launch took place online in early July.
Made up of a sterling panel, the keynote speaker was Anja Murray, Ecologist/Environmental Policy Analyst and presenter on environment programme Eco Eye; Bill Kelly from Community Power; Energy Consultant Laurence O’Reilly, ORS Consultancy, Mel Gavin from Sligo IT Contract Research Unit with support and well wishes from Ruth Buggie, SEAI.
The standard of applications for the SEAI Awards this year was exceptionally high. Paul McGonigle on behalf of the Inishowen SEC stated, “We are delighted to have been shortlisted and very much look forward to finding out the results later in the autumn”.
Shauna went on to congratulate the IDP team “particularly Mary McCallion who initially led out on this initiative along with partners at Inishowen Co-Operative Society and Donegal County Council on this highly successful project to date”.
Final judging will now take place and winners will be announced in October. To download a copy of the Inishowen SEC Energy Master Place visit www.inishowen.ie/publications or for more information on SEAI Awards visit www.seai.ie/energyawards.ie
For more information contact: pmcgonigle@inishowen.ie or phone the IDP office on (074) 9362218
