Ms Avril N? Shearcaigh:

As a small co-operative with limited technical expertise, we have looked at it. We hope to develop or join research projects to look into it in more depth on the islands as time goes on.

To be honest, we have not been able to investigate it in any real depth. One of the issues with battery storage is, again, the grid connection. If we were to add a battery to the grid on the islands, even if not generating electricity, ESB Networks considers battery storage additional generation for the purpose of offering a grid connection. We have run into issues with the 650 kW maximum being imposed on us because we would obviously have to scale down our turbine project if we were to add additional storage. We have looked at putting it alongside our turbine so that we could at least guarantee an export of 650 kW at all times but, realistically, we would need something more than that if we were to decarbonise the islands completely.

We have also looked at vehicle-to-grid technology. The number of electric vehicles, EVs, on the Aran Islands is quite high in comparison with the rest of the country. We have roughly 30 EVs across the islands. They are ideal on the islands and work very well. There is definitely space to look at vehicle-to-grid technology but we need support and buy-in. We do not own the grid so we cannot trial these things without interest from other stakeholders like the CRU or ESB Networks. Their involvement is critical if we are to look at these things in any real detail.