Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and Mr. Spratt for attending this committee today. I welcome the levels of engagement of various sectors of society in regard to energy security, climate change challenges and energy sustainability. I am only sorry this did not happen to this level five or six years ago, because we are now well down the road in regard to developing policy and are now implementing policy that will help us decarbonise our electricity system. I firmly believe we cannot be all things to everyone. We cannot say on one hand that we support the decarbonisation of the electricity sector and on the other hand oppose every technology or proposal made. I do not direct this comment at the Minister, but, perhaps, at other politicians here.

The Minister stated the Green Paper on energy will be published within three weeks. I welcome that as it will give us a further opportunity to engage with all sectors and stakeholders and enable us decide what we want for Ireland in terms of energy security and reducing carbon emissions. The Minister may be aware of a debate taking place on alternatives and last week biomass was being pushed as a real alternative to the wind energy policy being pursued currently. I would like to hear the Minister's views on that. I believe biomass is not the answer to everything, because we have a limited supply chain for biomass type generation.

There are consequences. If we were, as suggested, to convert the Moneypoint power plant to a full biomass station, from where would the supply of material to burn come? What is the Department's view? It has been very high profile in the past couple of weeks. It will take a combination of technologies to decarbonise the electricity sector

The Minister spoke in detail about wind energy. I have mentioned biomass. We have neglected hydroelectricity to a degree. Although not on a large scale like wind energy, oil or gas, there is still potential for hydroelectricity schemes to be developed around the country. Our first large-scale hydroelectricity scheme was at Ardnacrusha, followed by the scheme at Turlough Hill which has received many engineering awards over generations. We could consider further such schemes to complement and diversify our electricity generation. The debate on fracking is happening and geothermal and solar power are other possibilities. I would be interested to hear whether there are plans for further hydroelectricity schemes. While it would not be the answer, it would contribute to decarbonising the electricity sector.

Much criticism is directed at the Government that not enough is being done to convert existing power stations. In my region, the south east, SSE is converting Great Island generating station from oil to gas, a far cleaner technology, and doubling its capacity from 220 MW to approximately 480 MW. Are there plans for further conversions at plants such as Moneypoint or in the midlands to more energy efficient or less carbon intensive energy generation?

A few weeks ago the environment committee met people involved in the wind energy sector who told us that if they were building wind farms, they would build specific networks to connect to the transmission network. There is much confusion and controversy about the pylons issue. Is it true that the volatility of energy generated by wind farms requires the transmission networks to be upgraded, as proposed in EirGrid's Grid25 project? Is it true, partly true or not true? There is much confusion and some people are creating it for their own political purposes. Some say the only reason we need to upgrade the transmission network is wind farms are being generated and we are exporting electricity to the United Kingdom. Is that true or not? We need clarity on the issue.

The Minister did not mention the possibility of having an interconnector to mainland Europe, which would contribute to sustainability in electricity generation for Irish businesses and households. It would provide further options for the export of electricity and the possible importation of nuclear energy supplies. I presume we already import nuclear energy supplies through the UK interconnector and the more options we have available to us, the more competitive we can become as an island nation.