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Scientists comment on the Irish Academy of Engineering Report.
Dr Barry Hayes, Associate Professor in Electrical Power Systems, University College Cork (UCC), said:
“This report is a timely reminder of the stark challenges we face in realising our ambition of a clean energy system in Ireland. It should be essential reading for anyone involved in energy policy in this country, as it clearly outlines the engineering and economic realities of our proposed net-zero goal.
Ireland’s 2050 net-zero goals are technically possible, but they will not be achieved without a massive shift in the planning and delivery of large-scale energy infrastructure projects in this country. The IAE report is absolutely correct to highlight this.
We struggle to deliver these projects because of the uncertainties around planning permission, and the delays in getting planning. NIMBYism is holding us back and we need to confront it head on if the transition to clean energy is going to happen.
This IAE report correctly identifies our electricity grid as a weak link in the energy transition. Our electricity grid infrastructure simply doesn’t have the capacity to accommodate the renewable energy projects that we want to connect to it. Our grid is struggling to cope with the projects that we already have connected. This is not just an Irish problem, many countries will not be able to achieve their renewable energy and decarbonisation targets because the electricity grids needed to support this aren’t ready.
The EirGrid scenarios used in this report assume a very high level of electricity demand growth into the future. Our electricity demand has grown massively in recent years as a result of the growth of the data centre industry. The policy direction we choose now on data centres therefore has huge implications for our energy costs, carbon emissions, and energy security in 2050.
Ireland is a small country with a limited industrial base and very little indigenous manufacturing of energy infrastructure components. This makes us highly reliant on imports and vulnerable to supply chain difficulties when building large-scale energy projects.”
Declarations of Interest:
Dr Hayes: None