Dr. Paul Deane:

Ireland needs to pursue increased energy efficiency, massive deployment of renewal resources such as wind, solar and bioenergy. Doing this will get us going on the direction of travel but reducing emissions in line with the Paris Aagreement will require looking at new technologies, such as with a breakthrough in energy storage to store massive amounts of energy or by replacing energy carriers with new fuel such as hydrogen. Hydrogen can be generated from variable renewable electricity such as wind or solar as well as natural gas, by breaking the gas molecule. Battery storage will play an important role in the future but the scale of the issue is often underestimated. Storing enough energy for five days would require about half the world's global battery capacity in Ireland right now. The scale is daunting but it should not deter us from pursuing renewable energy, indigenous resources and energy efficiency