Summary of ideas submitted in the Green business category…

• Set up FÁS courses to train teams of wind turbine engineers to design, manufacture, create, install and maintain wind turbines. This will hopefully make them more efficient and the turbines can be used along with wave energy to power the country.
• Set up glass recycling plant in all towns around the country in which recycled glass can be converted into art/glass tumblers and sold on.
• Set up solar panel and small wind turbine rentals to establish a market at low cost.
• Significant VAT reduction on green technologies and services. Will assist promote new technologies and new businesses in this area.
• Small communities/villages should set up wind turbines in order to provide their own electricity.
• Start to use wind and wave energy more.
• Start up plants to process waste here rather than export our waste.
• Stop cutting down trees - make books or schoolbooks out of cloth or something
• Stop shipping our recycling to Asia and keep it in Ireland.
• Stop the recycling process from leaving the country. In order to make this cost-efficient it would have to be done on a large scale, creating employment, and if Ireland could establish itself in this field it could tap into the British and European markets.
• Supply carbon credits to support all green enterprises. For every verifiable reduction in emissions carbon credits would be awarded.
• Support small renewable energy projects that produce less then 5MW in areas where they can connect to the national grid easily. Could enable remote areas to provide their own energy.
• Support the development of wind turbines in Ireland that can be used in the west of Ireland to develop our wind resources. This will create jobs and will reduce our reliability on imported fuels.
• Switch off every second street light each weekday night; reduce the amount of lighting at motorway junctions, and all lights in government buildings should be on a timer.
• Tax incentives for the micro-production of electricity. Also provide tax incentives for companies to invest in technologies that save energy and reduce their energy costs.
• Tax the sales of chewing gum and cigarettes to cover the cost of cleaning up the streets of the litter caused by the two products.
• Tesco should bring in the recycling scheme they have in operation in the UK in which people who recycle their cans and bottles get bonus points, which can be used to purchase whiteboards for schools for example.
• The ESB, Bord Gais, SEI, and An Post should have energy saving tips on all of their outgoing post.
• The Government could charge a fee for excessive use of paper in offices.
• The Government should form public/private partnerships to produce green energy technologies in Ireland. This will take people off the dole, enabling them to earn a wage and to pay taxes.
• The Government should introduce a Climate Change Bill.
• The Government should invest in biomass energy production. The Government should set the target that 50% of all houses to run on biomass heating in the next five years.
• The Government should make the technology that is currently available that heats a house from modern wood burning stoves part of government schemes, or tax rebate schemes. This is an efficient and productive alternative.
• The Government should supply every household with ten free CFL lightbulbs of any shape to suit their needs. These bulbs will save on electricity costs, and will provide extra employment at the manufacturing plants.
• The national taxi fleet needs to be updated, reducing the carbon footprint. The taxis should be all one colour and used to supplement the bus service.
• The revenue from carbon tax should be used to pay a premium on green kilowatts produced.
• There should be a product that can be retrofitted to baths, which can basically turn a full bath of used water into a radiator.
• There should be an incentive for people to invest in renewable energy. They should be allowed sell any extra energy back to the Government, or the Government could give them kilowatt hours. This could be developed on a community basis.
• Turn off street lights between 2 am and 6 am when there is no real need to have them operating. This will save on a third of the energy being used currently to light the streets at night.
• Use Bad Homburg, Frankfurt as a benchmark and switch off every second street light. These lights can be turned on by text message for a number of minutes if required.
• Use disused farmland on the southern and western coasts for wind farms, with an aim to become an energy exporter within 20 years.
• Use electricity pylons and smaller mono masts as towers to support 10kw wind turbines in rural locations. This will cut down the costs of wind turbine construction and will generate more efficient turbines as the energy can be patched directly into the grid.
• Use factories around Ireland that have been closed down to produce bio fuel, wool insulation, or wood pellets, creating employment and cutting down on fuel wasted on importing the above goods.
• Use gas rigs’ surplus gas to heat sea water, turn it into steam and generate electricity.
• Use Ireland’s coastline to produce wind and tidal energy to power all of Europe.