Overviews
We have the energy, imagination and skills to solve our problems and create a bright future for our children and future generations.
A breakthrough National Project will create:
- Tens of thousands of jobs
- Achieve energy independence in five years
- Save €30 billion importing fossil fuels
- Create potential to add €50bn to our Economy
- Slash carbon dioxide emissions
We are all obliged to use our wonderful natural gifts, resources and talents to create a new future for our nation. At the same time we can help secure European energy supplies.
Creativity and endurance have been synonymous with Irish people since ancient times.
Ireland has no fossil fuel energy of significance. Our limited gas reserves will not last long.
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Technical Overview
Ireland has some the very best wind resources in Europe - an enormous natural asset with revenue potential of tens of billions of Euros per year.
Wind is a wonderful source of Natural, emissions free power. However, it is also extremely volatile (messy). It is difficult to predict, intermittent, variable in strength, often there when not required and not there when required. It creates instabilities in the power network and is very difficult for network operators to dispatch (switch in and out as demand changes).
The solution to date of compensating for the difficulties that wind energy creates, is to have polluting, gas burning stations on standby to replace the wind when it stops. This is expensive, particularly the open cycle gas turbine plant used for peak load and also means that we increase emissions and worsen our dependency on imported gas. It is not a solution to our problems.
Our power network grew organically from the early days of the state. It was intended as a distribution system (not an energy collection system), is strained in locations most suited to Natural Energy and not robust for collection.
The addition of wind farms scattered around the country in locations where there is much wind and little wiring has greatly exacerbated the problems. Equally placing wind turbines in poor wind locations just because there are wires available make no sense. The simple fact is that Ireland does not have what would internationally be recognised as a backbone Very High Voltage Grid of an industrialised country such as the UK or France.
Because of this, parties seeking to develop wind farms of any scale have been frustrated to the point where many projects were rendered unfeasible – often after years of work and enormous expense.
To help address some of the wind intermittency issues, it has been proposed that Ireland build interconnectors to import power when our wind stops blowing. This is a patently bad idea for a country which has massive energy resources, which should be exploited for energy export.
The present approach will never get Ireland to energy independence. We will never export power in sufficient quantity to solve our long term economic problems.
There is a straightforward solution, which can be started now.