Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The relationship between high energy users and grid managers has worked well. We have not had alerts this winter and we are already planning for next winter by bringing new energy generation capacity onto the grid. I believe that in a few years, this will not be a significant issue because considerably more renewable power will both come onshore and be produced on land through solar and wind, so I expect the demand will be resolved. Nevertheless, there will be a few years when the grid management is tight.

Many of the high energy users have their own backup generators, that is, large diesel generators they do not use or want to use unless they have to, and a conversation needs to be had regarding whether the State could rely on some of that power in an emergency through producing energy that would otherwise have to be taken from the grid. As for whether we are going to ask industry to invest in large-scale battery storage, whatever form of technology is most commercially viable is going to be the one it pursues, whether that is generators or its own turbines. Quite a few of the large pharmaceutical energy users, for example, in Cork Harbour now produce up to 40% of their own power needs by having built their own turbines, which are effectively their own power generation capacity on site. We will probably see more of that. In fact, another large turbine is being planned on one of the new sites.

Battery storage has a role to play, but I do not think it will be the silver bullet. Ultimately, I think we will store power in hydrogen in the not-too-distant future. Many of our wind farms offshore will be hydrogen-farming from the energy they generate, and power can also be stored in ammonia. If we are to be an energy exporter in time, we are not going to be able to export all our excess energy through interconnection. We will be able to export some of it to the UK and France through interconnection, but most of our energy exports will probably be in the form of hydrogen or ammonia, which are energy storage systems that do not rely on carbon-based fuels. That is probably going to be a more efficient way of doing it than having a large battery bank attached to business.

I think the market will decide this through whichever form of technology makes the most sense, but the Deputy is correct in saying we will have to have a method of storing energy for a grid that is reliant on wind to the extent ours is going to be because of wind's intermittency. For me, hydrogen is the most likely way of doing that, but we will have to wait and see.