Uncertainty 'could hinder' investment in green energy

UNCERTAINTY OVER the Republic’s finances could hinder its efforts to attract investment to green energy projects, a leading figure in the industry warned yesterday.

Christopher Knowles, head of climate change and environment at the European Investment Bank, told a conference that Ireland’s resources and ambitions for the industry made it very attractive to international investors in green energy.

However, he pointed out that certainty is key for investors, particularly in energy, where the time horizon is 15 to 20 years.

“You cannot expect to secure finance over that time horizon if there is some uncertainty about the operating environment of the project,” Mr Knowles warned.

The bank last year invested €200 million in Irish onshore wind projects and provided€300 million of the €600 million needed for the interconnector that will allow electricity to flow between Ireland and Wales.

Also speaking at the Irish Wind Energy Association conference in Galway, Minister for the Environment John Gormley said the Government was committed to tackling bureaucratic obstacles in the renewable energy sector.

Mr Gormley acknowledged there were 700 foreshore licence/lease applications still being handled by his department, but said this was something the department had “inherited” when functions were transferred over from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Mr Gormley said his department was working on the legislation necessary for a “single-stage consent process for project approval”.

The association’s chief executive Dr Michael Walsh called on the Government to put in place a management framework that would tackle “the complexity that is choking the renewable energy sector”. The lack of co-ordination between State agencies was “threatening delivery of over 80 per cent of planned projects in a potential €20 billion and 20,000-plus job industry”, Dr Walsh warned.

“In real terms what we need is an energy czar, a director of policy implementation that would report directly to the energy minister on actions to ensure we develop this sector efficiently and economically,” Dr Walsh said.

Yesterday, Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan predicted that the State would meet its target of generating 40 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2020.

According to Dermot Byrne, chief executive of Eirgrid, which operates the national electricity grid, meeting this target will mean that, at times, up to 75 per cent of electricity being used by homes and businesses in the Republic will have to come from wind power.

No other country has attempted this because of the engineering difficulties involved in managing such high levels of wind power on the system, but Eirgrid believes that it can deal with these challenges.

Mr Byrne said that other countries were now looking at the breakthroughs made by Eirgrid in this area.