It was the delivery of a visionary energy project which showed that our fragile new State could stand on its own two feet. Ireland’s first government put everything it had behind a plan from a young Irish engineer to electrify the country with power from the river Shannon. The Ardnacrusha hydroelectric plant was completed within seven years, in 1929, and the original turbines are still turning today.
That government must have been inspired by what happened in Valentia Island back in 1866 when, after three failed attempts, a telegraphic cable was first landed to connect Europe and the United States, cutting intercontinental communication times from weeks down to minutes. It operated successfully for a century.
We thought we were on the cusp of a similar revolution three years ago when the Shannon Estuary taskforce report was launched at Ardnacrusha. It committed us to having 2 gigawatts (GW) of Atlantic offshore wind power in development by 2030 and 30GW installed by 2050, setting up the midwest as a clean industrial centre and guaranteeing our prosperity for the next hundred years.
Unfortunately, there have since been some setbacks. The developers of the first western offshore project, just off the Connemara coast, pulled out last year – not, I believe, due to any fundamental flaw in the design but perhaps because they had too many similar projects on the go across the world. They may have also been rattled by the political ill will coming from Washington, where the US administration seems determined to sabotage the offshore wind industry, perhaps because it gets in the way of the sale of American gas.
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Some politicians here sold the false promise that floating offshore wind could take off immediately. However, the latest UK auction results show it is still more than twice the price of the fixed-bottom alternative and not yet available at scale. We should invest in floating technology – including having a demonstration site in our own next offshore auction – because it will surely advance, even if it takes longer than initially expected.
Meanwhile, the Government seems fixated on building new gas infrastructure in the Shannon estuary, whereas most international energy investment is going into balancing variable renewable power with flexible demand and improving the electricity grid. A flexible and robust grid is now the most critical requirement for a clean, affordable and secure energy system.
At the North Sea Summit in Hamburg on Monday, 10 countries committed to building subsea high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector cables as a future priority. This grid technology is proven and can deliver large volumes of power over long distances with very low losses.
We already have three such cables connecting Ireland to the UK, with two more already consented by the energy regulators, which could be delivered within six years if given a real political push. The ports of Cork and Waterford will benefit from the power that will come from the French interconnector that is under construction and will thrive further if we can run an electricity cable to Spain, as is now also being proposed. The 1,000km length and deep waters involved in this Spanish link puts it at the edge of what is technically possible today, but things are changing fast. China is now sending power overland for longer distances with much higher voltage, using the same HVDC technology. There seems no reason why such cables couldn’t work over similar lengths along the seabed.
That is why some of the best energy experts and investors are now promoting a much bigger project to connect Europe to Canada via a transatlantic electricity cable. It is called the North Atlantic Transmission One link. The benefits would accrue on both sides of the Atlantic because the time difference and varied weather systems would help us manage peaks and troughs in demand and provide more stable and affordable power.
The energy modelling commissioned by the promoters show that distance is not a problem, but beyond 3,000km the economics may become more challenging. As it happens, that is the exact distance between Shannon and Newfoundland – which should make the Shannon estuary the obvious launching point for such a cable. The area has everything else required, with a deepwater harbour, strong local grids, world-class engineering expertise and a proud history of turning this sort of visionary project into reality.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney should be keen, not just because of his West of Ireland grandparents, but because – as he said last week – the old order has ruptured, and we need new ways to reconnect. An Atlantic interconnector could do exactly that, just as when that first transatlantic telegram was sent from Kerry. Or just like when Alcock and Brown landed in the Roundstone Bog. Or just like when we lit up our country with power from our greatest river. It’s now time for us to turn to power from the sea.
