EU Projects
South Kerry Development Partnership (SKDP) has a long track record of participation in a range of EU funded projects, mainly under the INTERREG funding stream. These projects involve working with partners across a range of European countries on projects aimed at enhancing and improving the regions in which they are located. The idea is that the partners involved work together to tackle similar challenges facing their communities and/or regions and exchange ideas and knowledge as to the best ways of achieving such goals Project themes with which SKDP have been involved include developing rural tourism, enhancing the rural environment, supporting job creation within rural regions and supporting communities in developing renewable energy related projects (energy communities). These projects offer the partnership a significant opportunity to learn from the experiences of other regions as well supporting the development of the South Kerry region.
SKDP is currently involved in three different INTERREG projects related to community energy initiatives and enhancing the rural environment with partners from across North West Europe namely CIRCUS, Buffer+ and SmartCORE.
Circus
This project is focused on developing energy communities across the South Kerry region to support the involvement and input of communities into the developing community energy sector in Ireland. The project involved 11 partners across 5 North West European countries working together to develop and support rural communities develop and benefit from the renewable energy assets that exist in their regions. The whole area of energy communities being involved in directly developing and benefiting from renewable energy projects is significantly more advanced across our partner regions than in Ireland and this project provides us with the opportunity to learn from their experiences and support the development of the sector in the region. https://circus.nweurope.eu/project
SmartCORE
Linked to CIRCUS, this project is exploring supporting energy communities to move into new areas in terms of the energy markets such as developing local energy trading platforms etc. This project involves 14 partners with 5 pilot initiatives being tested in these areas focusing on supporting the management of the electricity distribution system through community involvement, developing community trading platforms and supporting communities reduce their energy costs through better utilisation of available electricity. While such opportunities are not yet open to Irish energy communities, this project aims to put South Kerry communities at the forefront of the development of these initiatives as they are rolled out in Ireland in the coming years. https://smartcore.nweurope.eu/
Buffer+
This project, featuring 21 partners in total, aims to examine and deliver the environmental benefits of maintaining and restoring peatlands in these regions. Building on a previous project, this more ambitious project will show, through monitoring and results, the real impact of peatlands in helping tackle climate change and the importance of restoring (where possible) peatlands. The project also aims to support landowners who have peatlands or poor, wet soils as part of their landholdings to seek to develop alternative crops and livestock opportunities on these lands that can help secure additional and long-term income sources for them into the future. The project aims to develop a business model for this sector that will ensure landowners who engage with the project will have a market for these new crops/livestock types and that there is sufficient demand in areas such as construction etc. for products derived from these crops. Education also plays a role in this project and organisations such as SKDP aim to provide a display site to help educate and promote the importance of peatlands in the environment to both young and old alike. https://bufferplus.nweurope.eu/
For further details, please contact:
Area | Contact Name/Title | Office Location | Contact No. | |
All | Sean de Buitlear EU Projects Manager | Library Place, Killorglin, Co. Kerry | 066 9761615 087 2670689 |
