Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. This is a very significant opportunity for the west coast and indeed also for my home city of Limerick. The ESB-Equinor project that was announced earlier in the year will be the first of many similar projects costing €5 billion and representing 1.4 GW yet it is only scratching the surface of the potential that is there. Indeed that potential could be up to 50 times the size of the ESB-Equinor project if one factors in the size of Irish territorial waters. To harness that potential we need grid development of the same scale or else we will simply not be able to take this on and will only be tinkering around the edges. If we want to become a major exporter of power and indeed of green hydrogen, which we may produce from excess renewable electricity, then we really need to invest in the grid infrastructure on the west coast.

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