Dr. Keith Sutherland:

I will respond to Deputy Stanley's question about how this has been done in other jurisdictions and why it is potentially a problem for Ireland. It comes back to what Dr. Ryan just said about the scale of penetration. There is limited research that has looked at complementarity and how to complement peak demand and the high frequency fluctuation against the storage capabilities. Studies concerning how electronic vehicles can work in confluence with the actual generation are required.

I was lucky enough to be involved in a German-Irish Chamber of Commerce visit to Germany, following on from the Deputy's point, and they have a significant account of photovoltaic, PV, generation in the south and a lot of wind in the north and, at some points of the year, they could have 50% of their requirements in solar PV at one time. Even a place as well established as Germany has issues balancing it. The issues are the high frequency, the complementarity of the storage and the ability to capture it at optimal times for people to use when they want.