Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 25 June 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Long-Duration Energy Storage: Discussion

11:00 am

Mr. Bobby Smith:

The answer to much of that, which is not very helpful, is that it depends. It is not a very useful answer. The space the projects take, the lead times and where they are in respect of technology readiness is quite different depending on what one is looking at. That again goes back to the auction design process. We will probably say this a few times. If there is a robust framework that can sort through that and pick out the technologies that can deliver quickest and are ready to go, that should be built into it. There are different elements you can do that around, for example, having potential planning requirements, planning submissions and bonds in place – people putting money upfront before they can participate, so it is not speculative.