Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentation. We are way behind with the infrastructure required for electric cars, particularly when one hears what people who own such vehicles have to go through in order to charge them. If Ireland moves fast in the context of providing incentives and so forth for electric cars, it appears it will not be able to keep up with providing enough power points to facilitate that.

Our guests referred to extra wind and going to 40% or higher. My understanding is that wind comes in at variable speeds. What is the cost to the generators when wind comes in to smooth it out? I hear that the ESB would have to spend €700 million or €800 million in this regard. Is that right?

Our guests and other members spoke about micro-generation. Our guests indicated that it is a case of making a guess where it is produced in small amounts, but I cannot see it being very complicated. Either one gives a price for something - be it 13 cent per unit, 20 cent or whatever - or one does not. Our guests stated that there are no set tariffs. Can a tariff not be set quite easily?

I stand open to correction, but my understanding of what our guests are doing is that they are saying to Joe Bloggs with the wind turbine, the person with the solar panel and the individual using the fossil fuel that they will need X amount from each. If they keep getting a fair amount of wind and they tell the guy with the fossil fuel that they do not need him as much now, will he not disappear? Can they live without the fossil fuel? My understanding is that they cannot. Am I correct that this year is one of the worst in history for generating wind power - I am not referring to the number of generators or wind turbines - due to the wind speeds, and that four of the past five years have been quite bad? Is it also correct that EirGrid will need either a gas power plant or some type of what I would call a second engine on stand-by to generate electricity because it cannot rely on the other types of generation?

Reference was made to the interconnector between Ireland and France and to exporting electricity to France. France has nuclear power and that is the cheapest form of electricity. Why would it take electricity from us? We heard a few years ago that we were going to export energy to England. How much wind-generated energy are we exporting to England? Is there a danger if we get electricity from France at a cheap price? Obviously, money talks and this is a business. If the grid can get it at a lower price it would be more inclined to take it from there rather than taking it from somebody else at a higher price. Regarding the tariff on wind and what the customer pays, am I correct that the person who owns the wind turbine gets more per unit than what the customer pays the ESB for the electricity? How much electricity, in money terms, is dumped per year because EirGrid has entered agreements that it must adhere to with regard to renewables?