Wind farmers debate national grid ban

A two-year old ban on new applications for access to the national grid from producers of wind energy will be debated at a conference in Thurles today.

The Irish Wind Farmers Co-operative Society - Meitheal na Gaoithe - will tell Commissioner for Energy Regulation Denis Cagney that advances in capacity to store wind energy mean there is no longer any reason for the ban.

Wind farmers will also argue that with rising fuel prices and uncertainty of supply, there is no alternative but to invest in renewable energy sourced in Ireland.

Andrew Cooke of ESB National Grid will be at the conference and will be told that the environmental impact of global warming is another reason to end the ban on access to the national grid.

Conference spokesman Ronnie Owens says the ban on processing applications for grid connections is affecting small and medium enterprise developers of renewable energy.

"It has cost our members about €6 million to bring their projects through planning and feasibility stages and this is now at risk because of the failure to implement a grid connection policy to ensure economically viable connections... Planning permissions and development options are running out," he said.

Today Dan Hannevig of Denmark will describe an energy storage device for use with wind turbines. Mr Owens says the Plurion Energy Systems flow battery "has the potential to remove the main reason for the ban, variable energy output".