Galway City’s Westside Resource Centre is playing a crucial role in helping people to reduce their carbon footprint and future-proof their homes while saving money on energy bills. This is after the area was selected as a ‘test bed for innovation’ as part of the Government-funded Climate Connected project. LORNA SIGGINS hears how the scheme is progressing and how it’s empowering people.

“Do you have a tale to tell about reducing your carbon footprint” and “has your local community group contributed to local sustainability?”

Residents living in Galway City’s Westside should have no problems answering these questions, posed by a Government initiative known as ‘Climate Connected’, thanks in no small part to the leadership provided at the Westside Resource Centre.

Sitting in his office, James Coyne, originally from Inishbofin, outlines some of the many initiatives that the resource centre is involved in, both directly and indirectly.

Founded in 1994, the centre next to the Westside Library hosts a number of free activities for adults in conjunction with the Galway City Partnership. These range from community singing to walking to arts to weekly coffee mornings.

It also leases out some of its rooms, at reasonable rates, to groups requiring space for meetings, seminars and social gatherings.

However, a common thread through much of its current activity is action on climate breakdown – whether this be its community garden, or the solar panels recently fitted to its roof, or its participation in the ‘Climate Connected’ project which is funded by the Government and run through Pobal.

Under one of the many actions identified in the Government’s 2019 climate action plan, local authorities were required to identify one “decarbonisation zone”.

This was defined as a “spatial area identified by the local authority, in which a range of climate mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity measures and action owners are identified to address local low carbon energy, greenhouse gas emissions and climate needs to contribute to national climate action targets”.

Such zones act as “test beds for innovation”, and in Galway’s case, Westside is ‘it’.

“So the fact that we are a decarbonisation zone means that we are also central to initiatives associated with the Net Zero Cities project,” James says.

The Net Zero Cities project is an EU initiative involving 112 mission cities – of which Dublin is one – which have pledged to drastically cut down greenhouse gas emissions through climate action, to achieve “climate neutrality”.

Galway is one of a number of ‘pilot’ cities also involved in testing and implementing solutions to reduce emissions and prepare for a “climate-proof” future.

As part of the Net Zero Cities pilot, the ‘Warm Home Hub’ at the Westside Resource Centre provides support and advice to homeowners on how to retrofit their homes to make them more energy-efficient and comfortable.

The free service, which runs until the middle of this year, is not tied to any particular provider in advising homeowners on the relevant options and grants available from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

Westside resident Dave Donnellan couldn’t praise the ‘Warm Home Hub’ enough. He has been a participant since he visited a roadshow which it set up outside the local church.

Originally from Woodquay, Dave is retired and he returned to Galway from Britain after his wife died. He has been living in Coogan Park in Westside since November 2023.

The building energy rating (BER) for his house was D2 as it was built in the 1970s. Dave says he got some great advice from the hub and decided to “take it a bit at a time”.

He has had solar panels installed, which have taken his BER up to C2, and he is now receiving a personalised assessment from one of the firms on the SEAI-accredited list to see what steps he might take next.

“The solar panels have meant that I produced more electricity than I used in January and my bill was €30,” he says.

“If you do go for the “one stop shop”, where you get everything done to limit heat loss and improve insulation, the company you work with will apply for the SEAI grants,” he says.

“It still requires a capital outlay, and there is a possibility of applying for a Government retrofit loan,” he says.

Pictured:  CEO of  Westside Resource Centre James Coyne with the solar panels that were installed there. PHOTO: JOE O’SHAUGHNESSY.