“Bord na Móna”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Over the years, Bord na Móna has expanded and diversified its portfolio of businesses to include biomass procurement and supply, power generation (peat based and renewable), waste recovery, domestic fuel products and professional and consumer horticulture products.^[3] In 2015, the company announced that the harvesting of peat for power generation is to be "phased out" by 2030, at which point the company would complete its transition to new sustainable businesses located across its bogs and landholding.^[4]

The new sustainable businesses and activities located across Bord na Móna's bogs are said to include; renewable energy development, domestic fuels, biomass development, waste recovery, horticulture, eco-tourism, and community amenities.^[3] It is worth noting that although Bord na Móna will cease harvesting vast amounts of peat to supply power plants, they will continue to harvest peat for their Horticulture and Fuels businesses.^[5]

Despite these changes Bord na Móna and the extraction of turf remains controversial in Ireland as it is criticised as being the most environmentally unfriendly form of fuel and having a negative impact on local biodiversity while in receipt of state subsidies.^[6]

History

Bord na Móna was originally established in 1933 as the Turf Development Board, Limited. The reason for the formation of the Turf Development Board was "to develop and improve the Turf Industry..." and "...to operate and drain bogs...".^[7] Later, in 1946 the Turf Development Board changed its name to Bord na Móna under the Turf Development Act of 1946. This move saw a change in status from that of a limited liability company to a statutory company as well as some significant changes in strategy and operations.^[2]

After the war, the Irish government had a renewed focus on "the production of turf by mechanical processes and its sale at prices that cause it to compete effectively with other fuels".^[2] The war raised a valid concern around the security of indigenous fuel for Ireland. The resulting solution was a White Paper issued by the government setting out what later became known as The First Development Programme.

Up to the 1950s, Ireland's bog were harvested for turf, but from the 1950s right through to modern times the bogs were harvested for milled peat. This new method of peat harvesting gave way to harvesting on a scale not yet seen before in Ireland. A number of bogs in the Midlands were the proving ground for this new style of harvesting and are still in production to this day. The primary counties for peat harvesting took place in; Kildare, Offaly, Galway, Longford, Roscommon, and Tipperary. These areas still continue to be the main areas of peat production.^[14]

Biodiversity

Bord na Móna has been responsible for both gains and losses of biodiversity across the bogs under their control. This loss of biodiversity is due to the company's operations which progressively altered the terrain of bogs in their ownership. Bord na Móna has made considerable effort to offset the impact of their operations over the years. In the 1970s, a group of Bord na Móna employees, led by Tom Barry who was Peatland Environmental Officer at the time, drove an initiative to preserve a number of bogs, including Pollardstown Fen located in County Kildare and Raheenmore Bog in County Offaly.^[8] During the 1980s and 1990s, another internal drive saw the conservation of more bogs, including Bellacorick Flush County Mayo, Mongan Bog, Clara Bog, and All Saints Bog in County Offaly. These bogs are now owned and managed by An Taisce, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and other organisations.^[9]

In 2010, Bord na Móna launched its first Biodiversity Action Plan.^[10] This plan set out a number of objectives and actions to be carried out over a five-year period 2010 - 2015. It gave an overview of rehabilitation work, natural colonisation projects, and the biodiversity of the company's cutaway bogs. It also highlighted the biodiversity projects in progress and those completed.^[10] In 2016, Bord na Móna released a second biodiversity action plan.^[9] This subsequent plan was developed to build upon the objectives of the first action plan while also looking to the future of Bord na Móna's peatlands with regard to Bord na Móna's announcement to stop harvesting peat for electricity production by 2030.^[4] Speaking about the biodiversity action plans, Bord na Móna's Senior Ecologist, Dr. Catherine Farrell said "We all need to work together in Bord na Móna to ensure the best outcomes for rehabilitation and biodiversity. This will be critical to the delivery of our Biodiversity Action Plans".^[11]

Harvesting

Peat was traditionally manually harvested by operating cutaway bogs. This method (still privately used today) consists of sods being vertically cut from the side face of a peat deposit. Technology was derived to mechanically cut and remove layers of peat from blanket bogs. Today, equipment is used to remove tonnes of peat each day at suitable times of year (rainfall is a significant variable in peat harvesting). Almost all the peat now harvested is milled peat, scraped from the surface of the bog by tractor-towed pin millers. The milled peat is ridged into small piles which are then transferred by harvesters into large piles running parallel along the bog. Railways are laid alongside each pile, the pile loaded into trains and the railway lifted and moved to the next pile. This is the 'Peco' method of working. A few bogs use the 'Haku' method whereby the milled peat is loaded into tractor-towed caterpillar-tracked trailers and deposited in a single heap at the edge of the bog adjacent to a railway line. Each year, the network of drainage ditches is deepened by a few inches before the next harvest.

Bord na Móna has developed a number of products which were novel developments in their time. Today peat briquettes replace sods of raw peat as a domestic fuel. These briquettes consist of shredded peat, compressed to form a slow-burning, easily stored and transported fuel. The first milled peat plant run by the Bord was financed with a loan of £500,000 from Guinness in 1957.^[12] Another product developed was peat moss, a combination of peat and soil for use in the garden - particularly in pot plants. The company also supplies peat to power stations of the Electricity Supply Board and its own power station Edenderry Power.

Railways

An extensive {{RailGauge|3ft|lk=on}} narrow gauge network is operated by the company in the midlands. Some smaller sections of railway were used in other bog locations, for example in County Donegal until recent{{when|date=February 2014}} years. Bord na Móna has an extensive network, which has carried up to 5 million tonnes annually{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}, and is larger than the main network (passenger and freight) operated by Iarnród Éireann.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} Bord na Móna has one of the largest industrial railways in Europe.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}

Permanent railways run from a hundred peat bogs, each covering hundreds of acres, to power stations, briquette factories, moss peat factories and roadside tipplers. On most of the bogs, temporary tracks are laid along the piles of peat the full length of most bogs. Before a pile has been cleared, another temporary line will have been laid a few hundred feet farther along. More than 200 miles (over 300 km) of temporary track are laid each year{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} and the Bord have specialist track fabrication workshops, tracklaying machines, and a fleet of dedicated locomotives and rolling stock on hand.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}

A few bogs are operated by the Haku process, where the peat is collected in one huge heap at the end or side of a bog, requiring only one railway line to serve it.

Part of the Blackwater bog system was also used for tourist trains - the Clonmacnoise and West Offaly Railway (colloquially the "Bog Train") for about 12 years. This service ceased permanently on October 2008 as it interfered with the heavy peat traffic heading for West Offaly Power Station. One line of the Blackwater system runs along a section of the former Ballinasloe branch canal. This includes a section where the railway runs through Kylemore Lock. The newest branch of this system runs north from existing bogs at Bloomhill to the new bogs of Kilgarvan and Bunnahinley - the latter in the outskirts of Athlone - and opened for traffic c. 2011.

All three of Bord na Mona's old steam locomotives are preserved, one by the Irish Steam Preservation Society at Stradbally, County Laois.

Each of the three power stations - West Offaly at Shannonbridge, Co Offaly : Edenderry, Co Offaly : Lough Ree, Lanesborough, Co Longford - is the hub of an extensive rail network carrying heavy traffic. As an example, 12 trains or rakes (locomotive + 16 wagons) were in daily use 16 hours a day at West Offaly in April 2009. Other, generally older locomotives, handle fuel trains, track trainloads of track, ash trains and permanent way gangs. The Edenderry Power Station is now (2012) deriving a lot of its fuel from woodchip and types of biomass and the amount of peat arriving by rail is diminishing.

The two briquette factories at Derrinlough, Co Offaly and Littleton, Co Tipperary each have rail connections to 6 or 8 working bogs. Between 4 and 6 peat trains work on each system, the trains almost always travelling in pairs as they do at the power stations.

Bord na Mona also operate several smaller bog railways delivering the peat to tipplers for transfer by road to factories and power stations.

They can be found at Gilltown, Ummeras, Kilberry, Prosperous and Almhain North - all in Co Kildare, Coolnamona in Co Laois, Derryfadda in Galway, Coolnagun, Ballivor and Kinnegad in Westmeath, Monettia, Bellair and Killaun in Offaly, and Templetuohy on the Tipperary / Kilkenny border. The Coolnamona Works is largely closed but the railway system was upgraded in 2010/11 to serve a new tippler supplying peat by road to Littleton (Lanespark) Briquette Factory.

Locomotives and rolling stock, for many years bought in from outside companies, are now designed and built in-house. New locomotives are invariably 0-4-0DH (diesel hydraulic) or 4wDH (no connecting rods). Most peat wagons are of the bogie type with aluminium bodies to reduce weight, though there were still thirty or so old steel-bodied wagons in use as of 2009. Templetuohy, the Bord's last traditional sod peat operation, uses 4 wheeled open slatted wagons which end tip into waiting lorries.

Land reclamation

The company is responsible, under government action, for reclaiming spent bogland. These areas of land are usually cleared up, with trees or other suitable vegetation being introduced. Reclaimed bogland is then usually used as a wildlife preserve. Much of the bogs of Ireland have been depleted, it is likely that most peat-fired electricity stations will be closed within 25 years. Rhode Power Station near Edenderry, County Offaly, had its cooling towers demolished on 16 March 2004 as it was no longer viable, followed by Bellacorick in north County Mayo on 14 October 2007.

History

Biodiversity

Harvesting

Railways

Land reclamation

See also

References

External links