A SHINING nugget of good news helped to dispel some of the gloom that gathered so thickly during the week. Costs and inflation levels have been edging downwards for some time. But such cold statistics fail to impress members of the public as they worry about jobs and rising taxes. Double-digit reductions in gas and electricity prices are, however, a different matter. Those charges are readily understandable by both hard-pressed householders and struggling business interests. The promised cuts cannot come soon enough.
The Minister for Energy forecast the fall in electricity and gas bills as the cost of oil continued to decline from last year’s exceptional levels. Even as he delivered the good news, however, Eamon Ryan warned that we could not continue to import 90 per cent of our energy requirements. The single best act we could take, he said, was to develop domestic renewable energy sources. If we did that, a further 15 per cent cut in electricity prices was feasible.
The proposition is a “no-brainer”. World supplies of fossil fuels are running down. We import all of our oil and 96 per cent of our gas needs. And while, technically, we own 90 days of strategic oil reserves, it is not all stored in this State. Our stored gas reserves would last less than a month. There is an urgent need to address these structural weaknesses. The recent gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine showed how vulnerable Europe has become.
Even when gas from the Corrib field is finally brought ashore, it will only be capable of supplying 60 per cent of our needs for five years. We cannot depend on such finite resources. But then, we don’t have to. Our western shores offer the greatest average wave power in Europe, along with the most consistent wind energy. It is waiting to be exploited. At this time of economic gloom, the opportunities being offered by wind and ocean power in terms of innovation, job creation, new technologies and energy production are immense.
Former US ambassador to Ireland Thomas P Foley regarded the successful exploitation of wave and tidal-stream technologies as Ireland’s opportunity to become a world leader. But official commitment and a sense of urgency are required. At the same time, wind power can be exploited through the use of existing turbine technology. With cross-channel electricity interconnectors coming on line in the near future, there is no reason why a fluctuating power source, such as wind, should not play a major part in meeting our energy needs.