Results 4,361-4,379 of 4,379 for speaker:Jennifer Whitmore

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: I apologise for being a bit late. I hope I do not duplicate or go over what was already stated. Recently, the Secretary General of the Department stated that we are having to even think about prioritising what the social need of the demand for energy is and whether it is housing and AI, and we are going to have to think much more about managing this demand. What are the thoughts from the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: Mr. Marley has no concerns with regard to the growth of data centre demand versus what we will need for housing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: As Mr. Tarrant said, PR 6 only factored in the current demand of data centres, so there is no incorporation of any future demand. Therefore, if any more data centres are given planning permission or operating on the grid, that investment will not apply for those. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: Currently, the investment only looks to the housing projections and the current contracted data centre usage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: Perfect. Does Mr. Tarrant think there is going to be any difficulty and would he like to see a prioritisation? My understanding is that the ability to prioritise energy for social purposes above and beyond data centres was raised. Is it correct that ESB Networks requested the CRU look into that? Did ESB Networks raise the issues? This may not be Mr. Tarrant's unit directly. The CRU...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: I understand that ESB Networks is working within the framework that is in place . Is it something it would like put in place so that it does have that latitude to make those decisions if Government policy dictated?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: I will bring it back to the purpose of this meeting, which is to talk about the climate change targets for 2030, particularly wind energy. I know we spoke briefly about this yesterday. Mr. Cunniffe mentioned that he does not see us meeting the 5 GW target by 2030. How much offshore wind had we 20 years ago?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: What do we have currently?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: Those turbines do not have blades on them anymore, so are we actually-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: So 20 years ago, we were producing 25 MW and we are currently producing zero.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: By 2030, how much will we be producing out of the 5 GW?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: If Mr. Cunniffe had to put money on it now, how many of those phase one projects would be operational by 2030?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: The reason I wanted to raise this issue is that we discussed it at the fisheries committee and I had not joined the dots. We will have had more generation of offshore wind 20 years ago than we will in 2030 and that is when we are meant to be producing 5 GW in order to meet our targets.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: I wanted to get that point out. In respect of the statutory timelines each of these projects have, what is the absolute shortest time they could be? There are statutory timelines we will not be able to speed up but there are other timeframes where there could be a resourcing issue and we could get a project through the system a bit more quickly. If loads of resources were thrown at this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: So, the Government is -----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: It is still within the remit or the hands of the Government to actually make this happen and for us to get some of these projects up and running if it throws enough resources at it and ensures the planning process goes as smoothly as it possibly can within the context of planning.

Select Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 29 - Climate, Energy and the Environment (Revised) (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: Is the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment not responsible for rivers trusts?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: Absolutely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Climate Change Targets 2026-2030: Electricity Sector (16 Jul 2025)

Jennifer Whitmore: Absolutely, and I am conscious the €26 billion in potential fines will be based on Ireland's 2030 targets.