Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Reduction of Carbon Emissions of 51% by 2030: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Christopher O'SullivanChristopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a very interesting discussion. Fair play to my fellow committee members for some excellent questions. It is thought provoking, especially around data centres and security of supply.

I might touch on the issue of security of supply. Mr. Gannon mentioned the capacity we have now in carbonised energy forms. He said we do not need extra capacity and what we have now can be tweaked and turned up and down - I realise that is a simplistic explanation - to cater for those lulls in wind or solar energy. That is encouraging.

The next question is almost like asking how long is a piece of string. How long would we have to rely on that source of carbonised energy and the interconnectors to the UK to compensate for those lull periods? I understand that might be a difficult question to answer but it would be nice to have a picture.

Mr. Gannon referenced the lulls in wind and continued days of low wind when the energy production is greatly reduced and how that impacts on fossil fuel energy. Does a good offshore wind programme and set-up mitigate that issue? If a wind farm is out in the Atlantic, does it mitigate against the losses or drops and lulls in wind? Is that a significant part of the solution?

The programme for Government commits to an end to issuing new licences for offshore oil and gas exploration and ending liquified natural gas terminals. This is something we all welcome. Most of the people in this committee are 100% behind it. However, there are existing licences. Will the commission representatives comment on those existing licences? Do they potentially form part of the short term solution to interim security? Is it something we should be going away from altogether? That could be a difficult question to answer but it is something we have to discuss because those licences are in place and there are companies looking at them.

I wish to ask about grid connection and grid capacity. This may not be something under the remit of the commission but I would not mind hearing a comment on it. One of the main points of issue of the renewable energy companies is that the existing grid connection needs serious upgrading. They maintain the set-up to the grid is not happening fast enough and the grid connection process is long, laborious and bureaucratic. It takes far too long. Will the commission representatives comment on the state of the grid and accessibility to the grid? My thanks again for a fascinating discussion.

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