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:

Yes, it is absolutely part of that. What we are talking about is that long-term contract aspect. I mentioned previously the RESS for wind and solar has 15-year contracts. I think we could even unlock a little more but that is not really important. This is to give that long-term certainty for investment, and that is what we are asking for this procurement to design. We need to co-ordinate the actors to design the procurement, as we talked about. It is not straightforward - we fully admit it will take time - but we need to progress it now, design it right and put in place those long-term contracts, ultimately from that procurement, that will give certainty for investment.