Ireland ’s reliance on fossil fuel sources for electricity generation places the whole country on unstable ground as these limited resources dwindle. Although even homeowners have the option of generating electricity independently using renewable energy resources, realisation of this potential is being seriously undermined by no option of selling electricity back into the grid, as Andy Wilson, Energy Spokesperson for the Mayo Eco Builders Group describes.
In 2001 the European Union adopted the Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Directive, which set a target of 20% of electricity to be produced from renewable sources by 2010. Rather than have the same targets for individual member states, national targets were based on a number of different factors such as resource potential, existing infrastructure, the cost of developing the resource and also the current levels of production of renewable energy.
By most criteria, Ireland lay near the bottom of the league table. In 1997, only 3.6% of electricity came from renewable sources, compared with the European average of 13.9%. We were set a modest target of 13.2% of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by the year 2010. With only five years left, we are no nearer to attaining t his target than we were when it was first set. Although the amount of electricity produced from renewable sources has gone up slightly, the total amount of energy we are using has risen in tandem. The best case scenario would seem to be about 6% of energy from renewable sources by 2010. Given that Ireland has an enormous potential for renewable energy, our lack of progress in developing this resource is nothing short of embarrassing . Of the fifteen pre accession EU states, only Belgium , Finland and Luxembourg produce less electricity from the wind than Ireland . In spite of the fact that the potential for wind energy is actually much greater here in Ireland than it is in Denmark , the Danish manage to generate twenty times as much electricity from wind as we do in this country.
So far, almost all the investment and research into developing our renewable energy resources has gone into large scale projects such as multi megawatt wind farms. While such projects are essential if we are to tap into our huge wind energy potential here in Ireland , it would also be fair to say that so far they have not delivered. The problems are both many and complex:
Preferential treatment by the State towards ESB owned or part owned wind farms has seriously discouraged initiatives from the private sector. Insensitivity to environmental and local community concerns has given wind farms a very bad press. Ambiguity and confusion about State policy in relation to renewable energy has led to a number of perfectly reasonable planning applications being turned down.
Furthermore, owing to infrastructural deficiencies, the ESB grid network is incapable of accommodating any additional generating capacity from many of the locations where large scale wind farms would be suitable.
Unfortunately, even with the best will in the world, it will be a number of years before all of these problems are addressed. There are, of course, alternatives to wind energy. There is massive potential for wave energy and for under sea turbines located in tidal streams but these technologies are still in their infancies. Electricity could also be generated from biomass; from waste products such as sawdust or from regularly coppiced plantations of fast growing willow. But, in this author’s view, the contribution from biomass towards electricity generation is going to be negligible for at least another 15 years.
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