Ms Marie Donnelly:

When it comes to the role of AI, as I mentioned, we are looking at the three Ds, namely, decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation. Of course, AI is part of digitalisation. The possibility, or ultimately the necessity, of using AI in how we use energy is hugely important. We have already identified the need to reduce our energy demand, both the volume and in terms of displacement in time. The Deputy will be aware that the peak for electricity is between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. every day and then it is low at night. Imagine what it would mean in terms of investment in the grid and the electricity system if we had a straight line application of electricity consumption instead of curves going up and down. While we cannot achieve that by people getting up in the middle of the night to turn on their washing machines, we can do it through technology and by having automated systems that will manage these programmes for us and deliver those kinds of results. AI, therefore, can potentially be useful and beneficial for the transition and change of behaviour in a less invasive way. We will be looking at that going down the track.

On the issue of nuclear energy, we did not look at the energy sources. Rather, we looked at energy in the context of its emissions. That was primarily focused on renewables. We did not build nuclear energy into the system. From my perspective - and this is a personal comment - there has never been a nuclear power station built on time or on budget anywhere in the world. If we are going to go down that route, it is an expensive proposition. The timeline for delivering it-----