- the development of new conventional generation (including gas-fired and gasoil/distillate-fired generation) is a national priority and should be permitted and supported in order to ensure security of electricity supply and support the growth of renewable electricity generation
This amounts to an admission that the renewable programme has failed. Imagine if a smoker said I will need to smoke more just to support my attempt at quitting smoking. They would rightly be ridiculed.
- it is appropriate that existing conventional electricity generation capacity should be retained until the new conventional electricity generation capacity is developed in order to ensure security of electricity supply
Many years ago on this blog I warned that wind energy would never be capable of replacing a power station. Here we have an admission that Moneypoint coal power station and Tarbert oil power station cannot be replaced by renewables. So what is the point? Henry Ford's model T replaced the horse and cart. The telephone replaced the telegram.
The same government banned gas and oil exploration and of course a coal mine would never be allowed to open again in Ireland. So what will all these fossil fuel power stations run on in the new energy scarce future ? Hot air? Wishful thinking? Empty platitudes? Virtue signalling? Of those, we have plenty.
It is an admission. Government is hoping fossil fuel will be plentiful and although there it is not in the hands of European governments who have stamped out exploration. Politicians believe all this falsehood is a vote catcher available to be harvested from gullible voters.
ReplyDeleteWait till we have the first blackouts, and watch the green vote melt like a snowball in spring.
ReplyDeleteIn all the decades of fossil fuel exploration we have had 2 commercial gas finds- 2. One is exhausted and the other went so far over budget that is a loss maker (and was sold by Shell). So we have no large commercial coal, most commercial peat has been stripmined. corrib is empty before 2035. We will import 90% of gas demand by 2030 (Russian-Norwegian). After the 1st blackouts we will ask where we can get our fuel and high cost gas you assume is the answer? We might want Nuclear but not in our county but we will import nuclear power from UK/France.
ReplyDeleteNatural gas prices are currently more than ten times more expensive in Europe than in the US where cheap and abundant shale gas is keeping prices low. Ireland has never allowed fracking and now all gas and oil exploration is banned. The consequence of this policy was never outlined to the public. Only the perceived upsides of a ban were communicated. We are now paying the price. The Corrib field could have lasted longer if we had restricted data centres. The kinsale field lasted for over 3 decades.
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