Tyndall National Institute Leads BioEInsights | Turning Agricultural Waste into Rural Energy
ESEIA member Tyndall National Institute is exploring how Ireland’s farming by-products could become a cornerstone of rural renewable energy.
ESEIA member Tyndall National Institute is leading BioEInsights, a project awarded €375,000 by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) through its Research, Development and Demonstration fund. Developed in collaboration with the School of Applied Social Studies at University College Cork, the project investigates how agricultural by-products including slurry, silage and crop residues can be converted into biogas and biomethane, supporting renewable heating, transport fuels and electricity generation in rural Ireland.
Ireland’s farming communities are facing a difficult intersection of rising fuel costs, energy poverty, and mounting pressure to reduce emissions while keeping operations economically viable. Despite their central role in Ireland’s economy and food system, many rural areas have limited access to clean energy alternatives and constrained grid infrastructure.
Biogas and biomethane, derived from organic agricultural waste, offer a renewable option particularly well-suited to rural Ireland, where agricultural by-products are abundant. Yet despite this promise, bioenergy has struggled to gain traction at scale.
BioEInsights takes a rigorous, interdisciplinary approach to closing this gap. The project will gather both qualitative and quantitative data across the sector to identify where bioenergy is already in use, pinpoint the barriers to wider adoption, and map optimal locations for future biogas installations based on sustainability criteria, economic impact, and stakeholder input.
Tyndall National Institute is one of Ireland’s leading research and technology organisations, and a valued member of the ESEIA Alliance. BioEInsights reflects the kind of applied, community-rooted research that ESEIA supports across its network ensuring that Europe’s energy transition fully includes the rural communities that sustain its food systems.
Contact: office@eseia.eu
