At the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Eddie O’Connor, CEO of Mainstream Renewable Power, described Ireland’s wind policy as incoherent. He also said Ireland's aspiration to meet its renewable energy obligations of 40% by 2020 from renewables is unachievable.
To achieve that target Ireland would need to build an additional 2000 turbines, he said.
Aside from the issue around community buy-in, there were significant technical issues regarding the stability of the network to be considered.
John Mullins, CEO of Amarenco and formerly of Bord Gáis, put forward the case for alternative renewable sources such as solar power. In a robust presentation he maintained that both the cost and efficiency of new solar PV panels was dropping dramatically as the technology evolved.
Solar PV power was now 80% cheaper than 10 years ago. He also pointed out that with longer daylight hours than Spain or France, Ireland was not at a disadvantage with less sun.
Malcolm Brown of BW Energy put forward the case for converting Moneypoint from coal to biomass.
He outlined the recent conversion of the DRAX power station in the UK as an example of how this could be done.
However, some speakers were not convinced there was enough biomass available worldwide to fuel such a massive power station.
Oisin Coghlan of Friends of the Earth pointed out that the most obvious way to reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions was to concentrate on reduced usage. This could include retro-fitting the housing stock with better insulation. This could be incentivised by a scheme similar to the SSIA interest incentive.
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