Terry Brennan (Fine Gael)

This is a very important debate. I welcome the Minister of State who is my colleague from County Louth. I congratulate him, as have other speakers, on his work to date.

I await with great enthusiasm the Government's new energy framework and the Minister of State might give us an idea of the anticipated publication of the strategy.

The opportunities for wind and wave energy in an island nation like ours are enormous. We have to meet EU regulations on emissions and so on, but other Senators have mentioned that the job opportunities would be tremendous. Wind, tide and wave energy will always exist and costs should not fluctuate, as they will be free. There are different types of generators, including those which work over or under the sea and on land. Wind energy provides a clean and sustainable solution to energy problems and can be used as an alternative to fossil fuels in generating electricity, without the direct emission of greenhouse gases. Wind will always be there, as it is inexhaustible, renewable and free. It would not have to be imported.

It is envisaged that wind power will make the most significant contribution to the achievement of national and international targets for green electricity due to its environmental benefits, technological maturity and competitiveness. Attitudes towards wind farms in Ireland have changed. In 2008, Fáilte Ireland carried out a survey of visitor attitudes to wind energy and found that the vast majority of visitors saw it as a positive development for Ireland and the way forward.

There are opportunities but we are awaiting a decision on the North-South and east-west interconnectors, as well as an underground supply linking Ireland, England and France on the Continent. In that way we can join the European grid, which will create greater opportunities for sustainable energy and help competitiveness. Since the first wind farm project was realised in 1992 at Bellacorick in County Mayo, 1,379 MW of wind capacity has been installed up to the end of June 2010. To achieve national targets for renewable energy, by 2020, an estimated 5,500 to 6,000 MW of wind generated energy is required. Wind energy contributions to Ireland's electricity supply continues to rise with additional capacity and by June 2010, a total of 110 wind farms were metered, bringing the total installed capacity for wind to 1,379 MW. In 2009, wind power displaced approximately 1.28 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.