Centre of Excellence in North Tipp will be first in Ireland

A MULTI-MILLION euro Centre of Excellence planned for Nenagh will be the first such facility to be built in Ireland.
The proposed development will be a national centre of excellence for sustainable energy. It will be located on Martyr's Road, Nenagh.
A recent meeting of Nenagh Municipal District was told that the plans for the development are progressing, and the local authority hopes to go to the planning stage in the last quarter of the current year or the first quarter of 2026.
As part of the development the entire area in that part of Nenagh will also be regenerated as a new and modern town centre amenity. Nearby Friar Street, leading to the traditional urban core, will also be regenerated, while there are plans to modernise the Emmet Place area of the town. An ‘Integrated Design Team’ has been set up to progress the project and the team is meeting on a fortnightly basis.
The site chosen for the Centre of Excellence is the old Abbey Machinery yard and discussions are currently ongoing with the present owners to acquire the site.
The meeting was told that the overall project will cover a 10-hectare strategic site of brownfield lands and under-utilised properties located in the heart of the town centre. “The Centre of Excellence,” the Councillors were told, “taking reference from best international practice, will uniquely host a range of public agencies working collaboratively to deliver innovative solutions from training and development, to new cutting-edge research on technologies, to incubating low carbon social enterprises.”
Funding was approved in March 2021 under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund. The total project costs approved are €13,990,179 and an Urban Renewal Development Fund grant awarded amounts to €10,492,634.
Cllr John Carroll said it's a very positive project and will make Tipperary "one of the leaders in Ireland in this kind of thing.”
He said Tipperary County Council will be developing Ireland's first carbon-neutral building. The project could generate some 350 jobs over a 10-year period. The project was first announced in June 2020. The Centre of Excellence is being promoted by the council in partnership with the Tipperary Energy Agency, North Tipperary Development Company, Limerick Institute of Technology, Community Power and Siga Ltd (Siga is overseeing the proposed €650 million Hydroelectric Power Station in the Silvermines).
The contract for the appointment of the Integrated Design Team for the “Nenagh Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Energy (SECOE – Ireland)” was signed on Thursday May 30th, 2024. The Integrated Design Team is led by Henry J. Lyons Architects who say they are committed to putting sustainability at the heart of their projects and they are working with a team of experts covering the disciplines of Civil & Structural Engineering, Quantity Surveyors, Conservation, Landscape Architects, Fire Safety, Disability Access, Sustainability/LEED, Heritage and Archaeology, Environmental & Ecology and Façade Consultant.

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