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TESCO IRELAND DREW down nearly €3 million from the government’s energy fund to upgrade its heating and lighting systems.
The supermarket chain had a multi-store LED lighting upgrade across seven Tesco stores nationwide, which was funded by the Ireland Energy Efficiency National Fund (IEENF).
IEENF was established to provide loan financing to both private and public organisations in order to support the delivery of energy-efficiency improvement programmes.
A document seen by TheJournal.ie states that the lighting upgrade to the Tesco stores unlocked 60% energy savings.
It adds that the “fully funded services contract” resulted in “immediate operational savings and equipment upgrade for Tesco”.
‘Low carbon retailer’
When asked why is the supermarket chain drew down the government funds, Tesco told TheJournal.ie that it wanted to become a low carbon retailer.
“Tesco Ireland has been working in partnership with SEAI for over 10 years to reduce its energy consumption and the carbon emissions from our stores,” said a statement from the supermarket chain.
The retailer added that it in 2014, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) asked Tesco Ireland to work with the then newly established government’s energy efficiency fund “to help kick start the programme”.
Tesco accelerated its roadmap to become a low carbon retailer and worked with the SEAI to access the fund. This joint government-private fund allows energy projects to proceed, with the savings generated used to repay the Fund, which generates a margin.
The fund has been repaid in total by Tesco Ireland.
Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment said in a statement that energy efficiency “is critical to reducing Ireland’s emissions, which is crucial if Ireland is to become a leader in climate change”.
Energy efficiency
It said the IEEF was set up to provide specialist financial expertise and loan finance to promote investment in large scale energy efficiency projects in the private and public sectors.
The statement said loans to public sector bodies and private sector companies are given “to fund energy efficiency projects which would in most cases not otherwise happen”.
The department said the emissions reductions benefit the climate and environment, while helping businesses reduce their costs and improve their resilience and competitiveness.
The fund expects to make a 8% return on investment based on the interest charges on the borrowing, said the department.
The IEEF is a commercial company, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. It is mostly funded by private investors but the government is a minority shareholder.
The Controller and Auditor General has previously noted potential risks with the department adding that there are concerns the department does not have control over the investment decisions and that fund may incur significant professional services costs.
Total investment in the IEEF amounted to €13.7 million comprising of the €2.9 million drawn down between May 2014 and October 2015 from Tesco and €10.8 million in May 2018 for the Mater Hospital.
It is literally mind boggling that we have high vaccine take up with one of the longest and most severe lockdown yet such high case numbers and no one in the Press or Opposition or even in Govt is demanding to know why? The bad news never stops!
@Neil Neart: lockdown ended months ago.
@Neil Neart: not only are we not currently in lockdown, we never had a severe lockdown, eg no curfews, no home checks for isolation compliance. Just compare out cases and hospitalisations per capita with Northern Ireland, where they have the worst death rate in the developed world
@Neil Neart: what are you on about, restaurants and bars opened months ago, there was 50k in Croke park last week , also the vaccine only stops you getting sick with covid, it’s doesn’t stop you getting it so i don’t know why you think the numbers are mind boggling?
@Stephen Kearon: Do you not consider Level 5 for around 7 months excluding christmas a severe lockdown? No curfews or home checks doesnt mean it wasnt severe.
@Neil Neart: hard luck! Massive fail there.
Tis a mighty drying day out there.
@Gerry from the Block: not much wind out though. Plenty of hot air in the comments below all the same.
Flatten the curve. Next 2 weeks are critical. #ItsInOurHands
@Victoria Victoria: same old nonsense for the past 2 years
@Larsen Cib: last 2 years have been critical
@Larsen Cib: nonsense? Well done you. Imagine how bad it would have been the last 17 months if we followed your advice.
@Alan Peters: Madness is trying to understand how 326 covid patients can overwhelm the entire health service of Ireland. Fact is, this only highlights further, the complete shambles of system that existed long before this virus sprung up.
Vaccinated nurses dropping like flies? Surely not? That must mean that Holohan does not understand the literal definition of “Fully Protected” as he likes to say so often?
Next they’ll ban Agency Nurses from working unless they’re vaccinated! Oh wait….
@Crypto S. Crazii: where did you see that vaccinated nurse are dropping like flies?
@Crypto S. Crazii: 326 covid patients in addition to all of the other people who need hospital treatment, its not like the hospitals are just treating people with covid. My friend works in ICU and they have had to open a second unit so that they can separate the non covid patient from the covid patients bit still have the same amount of staff because it’s a specialised area so can’t just have any nurse come and work there. That means a part of the hospital usually used for something else has to be taken away. After Christmas it was the coronary care unit that had to be turned into another ICU.
@Crypto S. Crazii: Do you know the amount of resources a covid sufferer takes up in a hospital.
How many ICU beds are available, of course not.
The HSE is a mess and we have known that since well before Covid-19.
Considering the mess it is, the country has done well to have the numbers we do have.
Vaccination does not mean you cant catch the virus, it means you should not have the severity that catching it unvaccinated has.
@Paul Furey: The Journal removed loads of comments and that has the the effect of making my comment look bonkers without the context of the the other messages I was replying to.. Happens to me more often than I’m comfortable with tbh..
@Gary Kearney: we are far from where we were in jan/feb at the peak of that wave. 221 in icu and 2,020 hospitalisations then…….. The national adult critical care capacity baseline is being increased from 280 to 321 by year end this year.
That’s good news. I see there were 247 people in Irish hospitals yesterday being treated on trolleys – or chairs – in corridors.
Still, it could be worse.
People in hospitals in New Orleans are not being evacuated because all hospitals in neighbouring states are overwhelmed by Covid cases and can’t take any more patients.
Early in the day they must be off to croker
Allow the communions and confirmations.
@Victoria Victoria: Not a hope, major indoor pissup’s for the dressed up hugging yummy mummy’s.
Ahhh sure, be grand lads.
@Craig Ferguson: that’s easy for you to say unless you’re an anti vaxcer.Try saying that to the front line staff in the hospitals
Should we not have a lot more cases if transmission is so high..keeps staying around the same for few weeks now..or do we as most vaccinated people don’t get tested because of hse illogical guidelines of no need for test if vaccinated
@SquintEastwood: it’s per day, not cumulative
@Elaine Phelan: obviously its per day…but why is it always around the same amount per day if it’s so much more contagious..i read that delta is multiple times more contagious and would double every few days..where is the doubling…if everyone including vaccinated people were being tested if they were close contacts the true numbers might show….same on article on here about back to school,if someone tests possitive when back to school or college for covid only unvaccinated close contacts need to be tested and then isolate for 10 days after test,but if the kids are vaccinated they just carry on as normal with no test or isolation needed..how is that going to stop people getting infected by vaccinated pupils if they don’t know if they are infected
They must be all knocking off early to watch the match.
@Noel Martin: yea u got to love the half days at the weekends or the early scaremongering attempt before people start to enjoy their weekends and the midweek announcements timed for 6pm ish when people are just home from work, always method to it, 92% of adults vaccinated, probably way above any early expectations and still the warnings, give it a rest, don’t think anyone is listening anymore, people in my circle don’t even want to hear about it anymore
@Hugo Bugo: do *you* work weekends, Shugs?
@Hugo Bugo: don’t be scared. There’s only the few of you so you all need to get together for a group hug.
@Paul Furey: yawn, little snipy man, let’s look back on both our comments over the last 15 months and see who was scared, embarrassing some of ye, snowflakes, l
That’s not two grand.
It’s close enough. Was hoping it would drop down a bit.
If you’ve nothing good to say, say nothing. Lip zipped!!!
How much Covid was importated from the 4th green field.today?
What’s all this talk about severe lockdowns? Don’t remember any such thing,I don’t remember a curfew,I don’t remember not being able to leave my house, but I do remember that the so called restrictions we did have were routinely ignored, maybe if they hadn’t we might have been in a better place sooner.
have your say