Fields of Gold
“Fields of Gold”, the South Dublin County Biofuel project based on a crop of “Oilseed Rape” was featured on RTE’s Morning Ireland programme on the morning of the 14th of October, 2009.
The project aims to educate the public about Oilseed Rape and renewable crops in general. The crop which is a demonstration crop was grown in a 15 acre field located off the outer ring road in South Dublin County. The site on which the demonstration crop was grown had previously developed a pattern of anti-social behaviour. Tracks were clearly visible on the former site from use of ‘scrambler’ and quad bikes. The new use of this site is pro social in nature and environmentally friendly.
The yield was expected at 8 - 9 tons of biofuel oil (8,000 - 9,000 l). The potential is within the demonstration project to run 10 family cars for a period of one year. The impact of the resulting crop is that the oil yield equated to 88,000 vehicle kilometres which in theory, will fuel 3 council vehicles for a period of one year.
This has been a tremendously innovative and interesting project for the Council to be involved with. In this audio clip you will hear from staff as to how the project has progressed. A supplementary presentation has been uploaded to our scribd account and is available below.
