Ireland must stop the continued development of gas-generated electricity and cease its dependence on imported natural gas, national trust body An Taisce said today.
The organisation was commenting on the opening of a new €360 million gas-fired generating station by the ESB in east Cork earlier this week.
ESB chief executive Padraig McManus said the very high efficiency rate of the Aghada power station meant it would remain not only the foremost generator in Ireland but also among the best in Europe.
An Taisce said, however, that in light of the opening of the new plant it was becoming “more seriously concerned than ever about the future of energy generation in Ireland”.
“An Taisce’s role is to protect our nation’s heritage and that includes the well being of future generations, and the charity believes that if gas stations are built that are not needed, not only will the natural heritage of Ireland suffer, but the nation will be signing up to exorbitant electricity prices for generations to come and will be jeopardising the competitiveness of our businesses,” An Taisce energy policy officer Elizabeth Muldowney said.
“These businesses, mostly SMEs, are already crippled with high energy costs with energy prices impacting negatively on exporting.”
An Taisce said that as a nation on the periphery of Europe with only minute amounts of our own natural gas, we are obliged to import the fuel to generate our electricity. “We are importing this via the Russian pipeline or (possibly in the future)as liquefied natural gas from even less stable states such as Qatar, Algeria and Iran.
“Our businesses are therefore held hostage to the currently low gas prices, which, as soon as recovery starts globally, will rocket, with these price increases being passed on to consumers.”
Ms Muldowney said that to avoid this scenario, the continued development of gas generated electricity “must stop and the development of projects that mitigate Ireland’s dependence on imported natural gas must be encouraged”.
She said that as long as such projects were conducted in the most environmentally responsible manner possible in line with the EU habitats directive, An Taisce would support them.
Ms Muldowney said licences and planning permissions have already been given for the future development of a number of plants, and these had not been included in the calculations that already showed our “potential overcapacity”.
“We need to put the brakes on before money is wasted on construction of plant that may not even be needed. This study is essential and a sensible energy policy for this country depends on it.”
The investment in the new station, along with a €75 million upgrading of the four existing units at Aghada which have a combined capacity of 528MW, means the entire Aghada site is now Ireland’s largest power station capable of generating 963MW.