Tuesday, April 04, 2006

How are we fixed for energy in Ireland?


  • 5 years ago energy costs in Ireland were 25% below the EU average
  • Today they are over 30% above the EU average
  • 86% of Ireland's power is generated from fossil fuels
  • 3% of Ireland's energy is renewable
  • 90% of our energy is imported
What's our answer? A interconnector to Britain!! Can you picture it? Europe is the middle of an energy crisis and Britain is going to bail us out. As Annie Lennox would say "sweet dreams are made of these"

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2 comments:

Mark Dowling said...

There are some options, not many ver y nice ones -
* keep building wind. If you could find good ways of storing the energy between peaks and troughs of wind that would be nice (like Turlough Hill).
* look into wave power on the west coast
* waste to energy - controversial
* agriwaste to energy - could be smelly
* solar - not much help
* put high taxes on incandescent bulbs, non-energy star appliances
* subsidise energy star/cfl bulbs/energy refitting of old apartments and houses
* close Aughinish Alumina - very high power user, as Irish Steel was.
* evict the NIMBYs blocking the gas line from the Mayo coast

The interconnector to the UK would allow us to buy European power from France - in all likelihood from their nuclear plants, ironically.

Remember - metro, DART, LUAS all run on electricity - power demand is going to go up like a bullet over the next few years.

Blah Blah... said...

Hi Mark - Without question there are numerous options but without any clear government backing or initiative that's all they'll remain, as options. With every passing day the worlds oil gauge moves a notch closer towards that dreaded "E". Meanwhile or government just buries it's head in the sand