Like most people, I was shocked at the sudden closure and placing into receivership of the biomethane plant at Nurney in Co Kildare.

This was very much the poster boy for the Irish biomethane/renewable energy sector.

Its closure and inability to function profitably, despite its access to apparently competitively priced feedstock and facilities to link in with the national gas grid, signifies deep flaws in the regulation and operation of the sector.

At its most basic, it was widely spoken of that the bulk of the competing product – the supposedly recycled hydrogenated vegetable oil – was a fiction and that the market was in fact being substantially supplied with fresh palm oil from Indonesia which met none of the sustainability criteria which are meant to apply under EU rules. Yet no effort seems to have been made to stop such blatant flouting of the rules.

A price has been paid and the reputation and prospects of a technology with real promise has been damaged.

We are in danger of seeing a similar regulatory failure in the battery storage technology. Wind and solar generated energy need to be able to be stored though the length of time is limited at the moment, but technology is constantly developing. In the case of battery storage, it is incontestable that there is a risk of fire and potential pollution from lithium-based installations.

It is not for nothing that airline flight attendants announce during flights that if your phone gets hot that you tell the crew immediately so that the potential danger can be dealt with properly.

The risk of fire and significant pollution from water used to extinguish a fire if it breaks out with field scale battery installations is small but real.

Commercial companies in some parts of the country are busily signing up farmers to lease several acres for battery installations, yet nobody seems to be in control of safety standards being imposed, pollution hazards being identified and farmers being indemnified in case of an incident from fire or leakage.

As a first step, it would seem logical that the department of the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency, the local authorities and the insurance sector get together and hammer out an enforceable code of practice that protects farmers and local inhabitants.

Without sensible safeguards being put in place, farmers will understandably hesitate to allow such necessary installations to be put on their land and another promising energy outlet will be lost.

The problems were spelled out at an excellent local meeting near the now defunct biomethane plant the other evening.

The problem is capable of being solved but not without sensible, well-informed action by the relevant agencies and authorities. Given the location of our own farm, I must admit to a personal interest in the subject.