Mr. Bobby Smith:

It is important for those in the energy sector to have certainty on the planning framework and the rules, guidelines and regulations they need to meet. Lithium-ion batteries are a common technology today but in terms of long-duration energy storage, they are just one of multiple technologies that will likely be part of the solution. Lithium-ion batteries have been around for 50 years. They are common everywhere in our daily lives, including in our phones, laptops, EVs and multiple appliances. When they are put into a battery storage system, of course, there are different design considerations around safety and prevention of incidents, and multiple international regulations and guidelines manage that. The systems being built in Ireland are the same systems that are being developed in the UK, Europe and the US to those same international standards.

What would be useful here is having a consistency in approach between different local authorities. We have seen in the past that different local authorities have treated some of these projects differently. Having national guidance or a framework for developers, planning authorities or anybody else to assess these projects would be very useful, and I believe the Department is looking at that in its upcoming policy.

That said, we do a lot of work with our members on safety. We have done engagements with the fire service and the Health and Safety Authority, and we are happy to talk to anybody. We have published an information paper on battery storage safety. We did a best practice guideline on battery storage safety through working with our members and we have socialised that with relevant stakeholders. We are happy to talk to anyone about that, so it is absolutely not an issue.

In terms of the supply chain, again, this tends to be focused on batteries given they are the dominant technology at the moment. As they come through things like EVs and consumer electronics, the supply chain does get raised quite a lot. It is important to remember there are regulations to guide this, both at the international and EU level. There is a new battery regulation in force at the EU level which stipulates things around the supply of materials for batteries, recyclability and end-of-life, so that is being built into these projects.

It is important to say that there is going to be some impact from sourcing the materials for these batteries, and there is no way of getting around that. However, it is important to remember that this impact pales in comparison to the impact of the fossil fuel extraction that we are doing daily. An important thing to remember about fossil fuels is that we extract them and that causes environmental damage, we burn them and then they are gone, and we have to find another place to extract them, which is a never-ending cycle. It is a matter of getting off that and moving to lithium and other materials in batteries, which are valuable commodities that will be recyclable. The materials that are in use today will likely be in use for decades and can be reused, which is a core benefit of these technologies that I want to highlight.

I will bring in Mr. Kennedy on private wire.