Project Description

LEAP is the Loop Head Energy Action Partnership. LEAP provides a space to examine the pros and cons of addressing the supply and demand of energy on the Peninsula.

LEAP was catalysed through the creation of a partnership with the International Class of the Flensburg University (FU), Germany. FU had been working with communities in Scotland for the previous 20 years and Ireland was a new experience for them.

The first visit of a team from the University of Flensburg took place in January 2020, a follow-up ‘virtual visit’ in February 2021 (done online due to Covid restrictions) and the latest visit was in early 2022 - again in person. In each case, fifteen postgraduates together with their university lecturers, worked for a five-weeks intensively listening to the local reality and applying their energy knowledge to the needs of the communities on the peninsula.

Over 100 people from across the community participated in the research and discussions, with focus varying between Residential & Community Buildings, B&B, Hotels, Restaurants and Small Businesses, Agriculture & AgroEnergy, Transport and the examination of appropriate local Energy Projects.

Deliverables to date are:

• Report 1: A leap towards energy sustainability for communities on the Loop Head Peninsula

• Report 2: Exploring sustainable energy options for Loop Head

• Report 3: Towards Sustainable Energy: A Roadmap for Residential Buildings at Loop Head

• The LEAP Energy Academy ran in 2021 in partnership with the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB)

• The Keane’s Solar Bar (see LEAP’s Solar Panels Project).

Project Justification & Objectives

The Loop Head Peninsula pays for and consumes 7 million euros worth of energy every year – the majority of which is fossil fuels based. A transitioning to renewable energies would not only reduce or eliminate CO2 emissions and so contribute to the combat against climate change but would also reduce energy costs. It would make the Loop Head Peninsula and its communities, businesses, and individuals more sustainable and richer: especially if some of the industry around this transition was based on the Loop, and so create a revenue stream for the peninsula.

To arrive at this objective needs the sharing or credible information, coupled with demonstration projects and professional training. This is an ongoing project and will take a lot of team building and time.

Project Stakeholders

• All community groups of the Peninsula

• Loop Head Together (LT)

• Loop Head Tourism (LHT)

• University of Flensburg

• Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI)

• The Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB)

• Galway University

• Technical University of the Shannon

• Clare Local Development Company (CLDC)

• Clare County Council

• The Department of Rural Development

• All others interested in being involved