Mr. Jim Gannon:

Different renewable resources have different types of capacity. For onshore wind, there is something called the capacity factor, which is how much it can be assumed the wind will blow and what it can be used for. That is usually approximately 30% in Ireland. As offshore wind comes onto the system, the capacity factor is higher and we can assume it will achieve 50% or closer to 60%. Solar photovoltaic energy, more of which will come into the system in the coming years, will address the daytime peak of demand in the summertime and will be complementary to wind. It remains a fact that in addition to the daytime peak we naturally see between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., we have a dunkelflaute, a two-week period of cold, non-windy weather in the darkness of winter. That is where we need something else. In the short term, we are transitioning to a place where gas can help us to cover that. In the medium term, there will be even more batteries on the system than we have now. In the longer term, we would like to see longer-term storage. That may come from battery technology or decarbonised gas, such as hydrogen, which can be stored well and used well in gas turbines, with modifications, or from other types of storage, such as pump storage projects. The short-term storage at that peak must be dealt with but we must also be capable of dealing with longer-term storage. There is a range of technologies there that could complement one another in different timeframes in that regard.