Ireland will develop gas storage facilities and need more gas-fired power stations as the country transitions to renewable energy but it will not be for commercial liquefied natural gas (LNG), Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan has said.
He was responding to a call by Fine Gael Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan that natural gas – including controversial LNG infrastructure - be used as backup energy to avoid “catastrophic” interruptions to the power supply.
Mr O’Donovan made the case for LNG and commercial gas options not to be ruled out in a submission to the review of energy security being carried out by Mr Ryan’s Department.
An initial report published as part of the review shortlisted a series of options to respond to potential shocks to Irish energy supply. Among the options are non-commercial onshore gas storage facilities and floating LNG terminals.
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Commercial gas options were dismissed with the increased likelihood of the importation of fracked gas and the possibility that LNG could adversely impact climate action targets cited as reasons.
A public consultation phase of the review ended last month, and ultimately Mr Ryan, the Green Party leader, will make recommendations to Cabinet on how Ireland’s energy needs can be secured in the coming years.
The use of LNG has been contentious issue within Government.
The Green Party has been resisting it amid environmental concerns but some TDs in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have been supportive of a proposed permanent commercial LNG facility for the Shannon Estuary.
Mr O’Donovan’s remarks prompted People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith to accuse it of a “deep contradiction” in climate action plans and of greenwashing in the message being brought to the Cop27 climate summit by Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Mr Ryan was asked about the issue on RTÉ's Your Politics podcast. He said natural gas would be used as a backup fuel up to the end of the decade when the switch will start to green hydrogen gas.
He added new gas-fired power stations will be needed to back up wind power but said they will use less gas because they will only be used when the wind isn’t blowing.
Mr Ryan said gas storage will be introduced because of the energy crisis that has been sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
While Ireland is not dependent on Russian gas it make senses to be “cast iron certain you’re not in a difficulty in this interim period while we develop the green hydrogen alternative”, he continued.
He said it would be State-led and regulated and added: “So yes we will have storage, it will not be the sort of commercial LNG that people have been promoting and promising.”
Mr Ryan also outlined how the Cabinet approved the terms and conditions for the first offshore wind auction under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme.
He called it a “significant milestone in tapping into the offshore wind resource we have which is huge.”
There are to be seven projects initially, six on the east coast and one off the west.
The offshore auction is expected to provide a route to market for up to 2.5GW of offshore renewable energy to the Irish grid, enough to power 2.5 million Irish homes with clean electricity.
Mr Ryan outlined an ambition for a future phase of offshore wind development to be centred on the Shannon Estuary with floating wind turbines fabricated at Foynes Port.
Speaking at the Cop27 in Egypt on Wednesday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said Ireland, with the support of billions of euros of private investment, was embarking on an energy revolution, which would see the country becoming a clean energy exporter feeding into the European grid after 2030 while also generating green hydrogen – and getting a premium.
On the issue of LNG in Ireland, he said the Government had agreed on the need to support a Government-owned and controlled facility for use as a fallback if there was a significant energy security challenge, “should we effectively run out of gas coming in pipelines from Scotland and north Mayo”.
He was speaking at a media briefing after a series of bilateral meetings with leaders from developing countries already suffering from “often brutal” climate impacts, and the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs Sameh Shoukry, who is Cop27 president and leading the UN climate negotiations.
He met Somalian president Hassah Sheikh Mohamud, with his foreign minister and climate minister, and received an update on the security situation in Somalia and the toll from climate impacts.
Mr Coveney also attended an event to mobilise additional funding to ensure vulnerable countries have early warning systems in the event of climate-driven extreme weather events.
Ireland through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Met Éireann has provided €4 million for the UN SOFF (Systematic Observations Financing Facility) partnership which enables countries acquire and exchange essential weather and climate data.
SOFF focuses on supporting small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) to close large gaps in basic weather and climate data which are essential to forecasts, to building climate resilience and to ensure effective implementation of a new UN action plan requiring everyone on Earth is protected by early warnings within the next five years.
