Heart lifting, an ace in the hole, at last! A bunch of scientists and engineers have fashioned a big idea to make Ireland energy independent in a few short years, exploiting Ireland’s unique topography that:
- Will create tens of thousands of jobs in construction, new grids and maintenance
- With a permanently secure energy source, transform Ireland as a beacon for increased foreign direct investment by multi-nationals worried about fossil fuel supply and costs. More jobs.
- It’s scalable which means, with sufficient interconnection to Britain and France, Ireland could become a green energy exporter, saving fossil fuel import costs and hugely boosting national income.
- The energy reservoirs envisaged will be owned by the Irish people through direct investment in a peoples company, bypassing Government and dispersing ownership
Wind resources
Like all good ideas it’s really pretty simple. Instead of using wind turbines in scattered parts of the country to generate electricity, Ireland’s powerful wind resource instead drives turbines that pump sea water into high elevation gorges that are a unique legacy from the ice age. Already two ideal sites have been identified but more are possible. These shallow gorges are blocked up and filled with sea water. The resultant flow produces hydro-power, a reliable and sustainable source of energy that doesn’t suffer from the intermittency of wind power.
Today a public discussion is being launched. Much yet needs to be fleshed out in further study but the potential is sitting there. Investment in the new energy reservoirs can be matched by finance from the EU and sovereign wealth funds but an integrated national plan is needed. The State has to face down the ESB and deliver the much promised new electricity grid as the current piecemeal grid is way out of date and incapable of carrying the load.
Meanwhile signs are the global economy is stabilising especially in the US where the housing market is showing signs of life. It’s not growth yet but it could be in a few months. In Ireland, while the April tax receipts are lousy, they are not deteriorating below the previous months, giving us a base from which to plan. All this means, we’re at the bottom, at last.
Strategy
The timing of a strategy for an energy independent Ireland couldn’t come at a better time. Not only does it give the Government and opposition parties, especially Fine Gael, something positive about which they can agree, but it comes in conjunction with the recent International Energy Agency report on the world endowment of oil. Despite the worst economic year since the 1930s oil prices still sit at fifty bucks a barrel. A return to growth, where oil demand in non-OECD countries is rising eight times faster than in the developed OECD, will see the IEA forecast of an oil crunch bearing down on us come true quickly:
- Over the next two decades 87% of all energy demand growth will come from non-OECD countries like China and India.
- Ireland which is 90% dependent on imported oil and gas is in a race against the clock to go green if we are to retain and attract new industry and jobs and cushion ourselves from oil-driven inflation.
- That’s why the Government, scientists, engineers, planners, business interests and the rest of us need to row in behind this strategy.
A green Brian Linehan could leave a worthy legacy behind at the Dept of Finance if he grasps the opportunity and delivers an envelope of incentives and reforms to make this happen. The time to move beyond doom and gloom is upon us. Now has anybody else got another breakthrough idea?
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