Sir, – Seán Byrne’s call for a proper economic evaluation of Green Energy initiatives is to be welcomed (Opinion, August 8th), however his article contains many factual inaccuracies and baseless assumptions.
Mr Byrne also overlooks the fact that oil and gas (our main energy imports) are internationally traded commodities, which we currently spend billions a year to import.
With regard to whether the UK should “produce their own wind energy,” he ignores the development of a dynamic EU smart grid which facilitates the trading of electricity across the EU, allowing excess production that is not stored to be sold to other markets, generating revenue for the producing country. The world has changed, these are complex interdependent systems. Superficial framing of issues as black and white, on/off is outdated and we require a more sophisticated analysis than that offered by Mr Byrne.
I would urge Mr Byrne to check Eirgrid’s fuel-mix graphs – easily accessible online – to see just where our electricity comes from. Readers will be pleasantly surprised to see the large percentage already made up by wind.
Wind turbines themselves do not take up tracts of land, mainly the area on which turbine foundation is sited. Farming can still go on in the vicinity of such sites as is the practice in many countries. Are they really as unsightly as Mr Byrne suggests? Worse that one-off bungalows built on pristine headlands? Mr Byrne also accuses the green movement of promoting the use of corn as a fuel crop. This unsustainable practice has now largely been discredited and the main proponents – the US corn industry – have been shown to lack the sustainable credentials that seemed to attach when they appended the buzzwords “bio” and “eco” to their sector.
On solar panels, Mr Byrne makes another error, mixing up solar wafers (which convert solar energy into electric charge, and are rarely used to heat water) with basic passive solar collectors that many Irish households have installed on their roofs.
These collectors do not use rare earth metals or polluting technologies in their production.
On electric cars (EVs), Mr Byrne does not heed his own call for rigorous EROI analysis and states that electric car are less efficient. Current internal combustion driven cars have long been energy intensive and polluting to produce and modern EVs are proven to be much more energy efficient than their petrol or diesel equivalents.
These are 21st century technologies with a complexity that requires a multidisciplinary understanding and a more thoughtful and encompassing analysis.
At a conference on electric vehicles in Shanghai last year, I was amazed when a professor of engineering from Austria showed a slide about European grids and EV infrastructure – Ireland already has one of the most extensive in Europe – a legacy of Eamon Ryan and the ongoing work of the Electric Ireland. Indeed, the US Department of Energy has visited Ireland recently to see the work that has been done.
There are massive opportunities for new industries here, but there is a concurrent, unmet need for up-to-date, comprehensive analysis and something called “long-term planning” that we could do well to learn about in Ireland. Large corporations are already working on this – IBM’s Smart Cities for example, of which Dublin is a participant.
Tired anecdotes of people skimping on hot showers and shivering in cold houses are lazy stereotypes that no longer apply and do not help anyone. – Is mise,