Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O’Dowd. Looking at the Government’s amendment first, if I may, the second last paragraph states that the Government "welcomes the imminent publication of a Green Paper on Energy Policy that will, inter alia, further develop and build out a comprehensive and progressive suite of policies that clearly state how our renewable energy targets will be reached." That has been lacking in the debate. I hope the Green Paper is imminent and that we get it soon, because a number of factors are changing rapidly in this area and we do need the numbers. For instance, we subsidise the ESB to use peat and then we prosecute individuals down the country who dig up the same peat. The numbers will show that the use of peat to generate electricity makes no economic sense and we may as well leave it to the small operators who sell it to people for domestic use. Let us see the numbers in that regard.

One must also bear in mind the success of fracking in the United States. I appreciate that many Members do not like it but it is still a success for Ireland in that it has reduced the price of coal and gas on international markets. The Shannon natural energy group says that if it could land the gas in the Shannon Estuary and send it through the BGE network, that would reduce the country's energy costs. If that is true, one must also take into account how that changes the relative competitiveness of what we have in mind already. Some of the suggested alternatives are starting to look excessively high-cost by comparison with the new market in energy. I am sure the Minister of State will expedite the production of the numbers on which we are now working. Some of the numbers that are published would cast serious doubts on tidal energy. They have been trying to do that in the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada for years and it has always proven to be uneconomical. Technically all of those things are possible, but the question we must ask is whether they make economic sense.

Paragraph 8 of the Government’s amendment states that it "welcomes the recent publication by the Government of the Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan which provides the framework for sustainable exploitation of our offshore wind, wave and tidal resource". I just do not know whether they are sustainable. Some of the costings we have received suggest that ocean generation of electricity could be twice as expensive as coal generation, three times as expensive as biomass generation and ten times as expensive as hydroelectricity. There is not much scope for new hydroelectric generation in Ireland. In addition, according to some estimates, offshore wind farms are extremely expensive to develop. In addition, there is a network cost. Let us see the numbers on all of the options. I do not mind spending money on research but we should not distort the competitiveness of the economy by getting ourselves involved in forms of electricity generation that do not make economic sense. I appeal to the Minister of State to provide the proper numbers on which we can base informed decisions as to whether various forms of electricity generation are worthwhile. Even in the United States, solar energy looks to be extremely expensive. Offshore wind looks to be uncompetitive, and with the reduction in the price of coal and gas, perhaps we have to look at the numbers again. If the numbers from the United States are correct, one could ask whether we need to change the network that much, because the coal could come in at low cost to Moneypoint, which is already connected up to the network, and gas can come in on the other side of the Shannon close to Tarbert, which is already connected up to the network.

When I hear of plans to build vast wind farms in the midlands, I wonder what are the numbers involved. Is it dependent on huge subsidies from the Department and from the electricity consumer? If so, that would damage the overall competitiveness of the economy. If we found we did not need to change the grid to connect up new wind farms in the midlands and that we could use the existing grid, we could use existing resources more efficiently. While we all have aspirations to protect the environment and to find sustainable ways of generating electricity, we need the jobs as well. Loading the consumer and industrial sector with the cost of schemes that are somewhat fanciful in their economics is not the way to proceed.

We really do need to see the numbers with regard to what the various methods of generation would cost and what that would mean for consumers and industry, particularly the new high-tech industries, which are heavy users of electricity. It is a cliché to say that we do not need to go tilting at windmills or waves if they turn out to be horrendously uneconomical, but we would welcome the numbers from the Department.