Professor Michael Morris:

Looking at carbon neutrality, one would always say that something like wind is never carbon neutral or carbon zero. We have to think about all the plastics, all the design and, critically, the end points of what we do. We do not know what to do with old wind turbine blades at the moment. That is a particular problem if we look at environmental legislation that will come down the road about having to recycle within the country. When one starts looking at the carbon footprint of all those processes, the carbon neutrality of everything has to be quantified. There are key things that, at the moment, are pretty good. I was reminded by someone from the ESB that the new oil turbines, with all their decarbonisation, are as carbon neutral as wind power from five years ago. We have to be careful when we start talking about renewable energies as to whether they are really renewable in that sense.