Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Citizen and Community Measures: Discussion

Mr. John Fogarty:

On the grid, we have combined with four or five communities throughout the country. We have tried to spread a number of grid applications to match them. Previous speakers have described how it depends on whether the local power station needs to be upgraded. If a 4 MW project tips the balance to the extent that a bigger transformer needs to be put provided, all of the costs will be loaded onto us. This could be avoided in the case of community applications. If wind energy is being supplied to the power station, wind and solar power generally do not reach a peak at the same time. If it is windy, it is more than likely that the level of energy from the sun is fairly low and vice versa. It is a misnomer to think the grid needs to be upgraded by 4 MW of solar energy if there is already enough wind energy in the system. A lot of things could be worked to the advantage of community applications. I think they could be considered in tandem with large-scale applications.

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