Sir, – In his call for a discussion (December 7th), Dr Daryl Kennedy might consider the following facts: Ireland has one of the best wind resources in Europe; Ireland produces the cheapest wind energy in Europe; Ireland has the least level of subsidy for wind generation in Europe; Ireland's State-owned coal and peat energy plants produce 60 per cent of all carbon produced from electricity production, while producing just 22 per cent of electricity supplies.
The World Bank estimates that the correct cost of carbon is up to €100 per tonne. Our peat and coal plants pay €8.50 per tonne. Of Ireland’s legacy oil and gas plants, some of them up to 60 years old, 15 attract annual capacity payments of €150 million to declare themselves available yet they seldom generate electricity. There is no signal for old, inefficient, inflexible plants to exit the market – so we maintain the illusion of having plenty of capacity.
Greenhouse gases need to be reduced dramatically in electricity generation, in heating, transport and agriculture. However, the only sector that has made any meaningful progress has been electricity generation, and this has been due to the success of the Irish wind energy industry.
While Ireland’s natural advantage in wind energy can be further exploited, biomass and solar generation will grow their share of the renewable energy market.
Energy storage, so flippantly dismissed by some, is recognised by those familiar and practiced in the energy marked as being the major game-changer in the next five years.
Storage, the essential ingredient in all supply businesses, is eventually being brought centre stage in the electricity market. Energy storage as a decarbonisation enabler is defined as any system that is used for the intake and stocking of electricity in different sustainable energy forms. The release of this energy at a controlled time can be in forms that include electricity, gas, thermal energy and other energy carriers. The technological areas being exploited today include chemical, electrochemical, electrical, mechanical and thermal, where continued cost reductions are also being pursued to make storage an increasingly important component in the transition towards sustainable, flexible and stable energy systems.
As chief executive of a renewable energy company, my interest is in promoting an industry that helps to address the biggest challenge of our age – climate change. I do that with the most cost-effective, sustainable and clean technology commercially available today. I have seen that technology grow in sophistication and efficiency in the past decade, and I look forward to ever-increasing efficiencies and further breakthrough technologies in the immediate future. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN McGRATH,
Gaelectric Holdings, plc
Portview House,
Thorncastle Street,
Ringsend, Dublin 4.