A West Donegal community co-operative which has developed the State's first eco-technology powered community centre is hoping the next few weeks will bring a Government change of attitude to the project.
Two previous requests for Government funding for the project have been refused. A third application for funding from the National Lottery will be decided on next month.
The communities of Portnoo, Nairin and Rosbeg have spent the last six years designing and fund-raising for the Dolmen Centre, called after the Kilclooney Dolmen which is located in the area. The centre uses a wind turbine to provide electricity, extract heat from the soil and run a reed-bed Puraflow sewerage system which naturally filters waste products and results in filtered water.
So far the centre has cost in the region of £560,000. Some £200,000 came from the EU Interreg fund, £100,000 from the International Fund for Ireland, £72,000 from the Leader Project and £38,000 from Donegal County Council.
The communities and their co-operative society are determined to raise another £100,000. Last weekend the centre opened to the public. It houses a tourist information point, a souvenir shop, cafe, Internet access, a sports and events hall, rooms for meetings and conferences, and steam, shower and sauna rooms.
The centre manager, Ms Sinead Campbell, explains that the society is hoping to attract field trips from universities which regularly come to study the remarkable confluence of geologic elements in the area. Tourism receipts are likely to be high as the area is a well-known tourist resort and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The location has also been awarded the EU Eco Beatha designation for environmental purity.
A meteor from Queen's University Belfast has been lent to the centre as an added attraction. With study groups and tourism receipts, as well as year-round community use, the aim of the centre is to be self sufficient in running costs.
According to Mr Conal Shovlin, the driving force behind the facility over the past six years, the integration of local employment, environmental protection, geologic study and renewable energy, has implications for good building design.
"We should make the buildings do what we want, burning fossil fuels for heating is not what we want." The centre's heating system is derived from a low-grade source heat which is extracted by a sealed chemical system placed eight feet underground.
The chemical is heated by the low-grade heat in the ground and this heat passes through a heat exchanger into another system which runs pipes under the centre's floor. It produces a 25 per cent gain in terms of energy used to run the system and the energy it provides. The heat pump also boosts water-heating facilities at the centre.
Power for the pumps, lights and other equipment is supplied by the ESB, but six solar panels on the roof can supply a maximum of 9 kWh to the hotwater system. A 6 kWh wind turbine has been erected to service hot water needs, and the possibility of excess electricity being returned to the ESB gives the centre potential to be energy self-sufficient.
"We definitely think this is the way of the future," Mr Shovlin says, adding that housing estates could be developed using these technologies and impacting radically on Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions.
Advice on the green systems in the centre was provided by Environmental Research and Design Associates (ERDA) of Carndonagh, Co Donegal. Barney Walshe of ERDA says the centre is the ideal way to cope with issues of employment, economy and ecological damage from tourism. For Mr Shovlin, however, the next announcement of lottery funding will be a test of how politicians view the importance of the issues raised by the centre.
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