Background
The West Kerry Dairy Farmers’ Sustainable Energy Community was established in 2019 with support from SEAI, ESB, Kerry Agribusiness and Dovea Genetics. A steering committee was formed with nine people representing the Dingle Hub, ESB, SEAI, Community Energy Mentors and four Dairy Farmers.
Our aim is to create a vibrant community of sustainable, energy efficient, dairy farmers in West Kerry. We will do this by working to make our farming community resilient and energy efficient, exploiting renewable energy sources, reducing costs and our carbon emissions, and becoming a template for other rural farming communities.
The West Kerry Dairy Farmer’s SEC is inclusive and open and shares knowledge and skills with the farming community that will support the SEC to transition towards a more energy efficient future. We engage with other farming communities nationally, leveraging knowledge transfer networks to share learnings. We work with other groups, agencies and farming bodies locally and nationally that can support the SEC.
We commit to:
- Increasing our understanding of energy efficiencies and renewable energy sources on the farm.
- Building a network of farmers who will actively engage with the SEC.
- Reducing our energy usage on the farm by 3% annually from 2021.
- Working with the SEC Network, the SEAI and our Energy Mentor to make changes to our energy usage and identify projects for retrofit.
- Identifying land management practices that could assist in storing carbon.
120 West Kerry dairy farmers have joined up so far.
