Press Release Dated 13^th July 2009

Field of Yellow Flowers Pilot bio-fuel project at Grange adjacent to Corkagh Park.

South Dublin County Council in conjunction with the Parks Department have undertaken a pilot Oil Seed Rape growing and harvesting project on lands adjacent to Corkagh Park. see map

The aim of the project is to educate the public about Oil Seed Rape and renewable energy crops in general and to provide a demonstration crop to illustrate the quantity of land required to fuel a vehicle for a year. The mileage achieved using the resulting biofuel product will also be measured and the results subsequently made public.

A local grower, who specializes in the growing of oil seed rape crops has been contracted to cultivate and plough the field, sow the crop and subsequently maintain and harvest the crop. Once the crop is harvested the oil will be processed. The resulting cake (seed husks) will be used as animal feed and the resulting biofuel will be used to fuel the two converted vehicles used by the Parks Department. The crop was sown in the spring of 2009 and is to be harvested in late summer. It is expected that the project will be close to cost neutral as the resulting fuel will counter- balance the cost of the crop production and processing.

The contractor has estimated that 8-9 tons of biofuel oil (8,000-9,000L) can be produced from the 15 acre plot. The average small family car with a 1.4 litre engine uses approximately 800 litres per annum (based on mileage of approx. 20,000 km per annum). Potentially the project could fuel 10 family cars for 1 year. Theoretically 1.5 acres (0.6ha) of oil seed rape is sufficient to fuel 1 family car per annum.

Continue to check the Parks Departments website for progress reports. http://parks.southdublin.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=131