Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Energy - Ambition and Challenges: Discussion

Mr. Noel Cunniffe:

I am not as constrained. To give an indication, in EirGrid's grid development strategy, Shaping our Electricity Future, we are speaking about an investment in grid infrastructure purely for the transmission system in the region of €1 billion to €2 billion to try to bring forward our ambition for 2030. There will also need to be investment in the distribution system from ESB Networks. This compares to an investment of tens of billions of euro from private investors to develop the needed onshore and offshore wind resources, solar wind farms, battery energy storage and hydrogen projects. In the grand scheme of things, investment in the grid infrastructure, and it is an investment, is an investment in our future, which is clean power.