Mr. Bobby Smith:

On the regional aspects the Deputy asked a question about, this would essentially be very strategic in nature in terms of location of projects. Where there is congestion on the grid in terms of renewables, whether it is wind or solar, that is an optimal place to build out long duration storage to solve that issue, as well as providing other system benefits as well. That would be factored in to the model we are talking about, which would also consider the network and locations where there is congestion and where storage would be of most value.

As for what this means for local economies, we did a piece of work with KPMG that we published earlier in the year. Energy storage is a relatively new sector in Ireland but given the targets we have and given our renewable ambitions, it is going to grow quite a lot. KPMG did some analysis on the jobs potential in the energy storage sector and they looked at 2035 and different scenarios for a build-out and growth of energy storage. It depends on the pace of renewable build-out and it depends on the types of energy storage technologies that ultimately are deployed but its estimate was that this could create between 2,500 and 5,000 jobs in the sector. These would mostly be in construction and operation but the problem KPMG identified is that we do not necessarily have the skills today to develop that.

What is happening today in the renewables industry is that there is a small pool already that has built out the onshore wind sector and now those concerned are being pulled into offshore wind, solar and increasing energy storage as well. As that is putting a strain on the resources we have today, we need to grow that and build out those skills gaps through new graduates coming into the sector, through learning opportunities and through specific training courses, which are really important. There is a huge benefit in terms of the jobs potential for local economies, similar to the wind industry. I think there are 5,000 jobs in the wind industry today and that has been a huge benefit to local economies. As the storage sector is essentially an extension of that, it can be looked at that way.

On planning issues, I mentioned 750 MW of battery storage currently connected to the grid. As those projects are relatively small in scale, planning to date has not been a major issue. We often hear about how that is often the defining issue with wind and solar projects and about how the planning system is not fit for purpose. It has not to date been an issue for storage but I definitely caveat that with the sense that this sector is going to grow, we are going to see more technologies come in and they are going to be bigger scale. Consequently, we need a planning system that is fit for purpose. It is about translating national strategic objectives about renewables, decarbonisation and the technologies that are behind that and which we need down to a local area level and making sure those local area plans and planning authorities are able to progress the projects that we need.