History offers lessons to help us solve  renewable energy puzzle

Renewable energy experts believe that Ireland can optimise its unique natural advantages to become a world leader in offshore wind energy

At the 'Powering up Europe: Unlocking Ireland's offshore wind potential' conference: Stefano Grassi, Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Simson; Ambassador Barbara Cullinane, Deputy Permanent Representative, Ireland; Sean Kelly, MEP; Alistair Phillips-Davies, CEO, SSE; Sonya Twohig, Secretary General ENTSO-E; Kristian Ruby, Secretary General, Eurelectric; Pierre Tardieu, Chief Policy Officer, WindEurope.

In this rolling ‘decade of centenaries’, an event that was to prove crucial to planet Earth’s current temperature predicament has been, come and gone with little fuss. On May 6th, 1923, the New Zealand-born geologist and mining engineer, Frank Holmes, agreed an oil exploration concession with Sultan Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud.

Holmes had been searching the Middle East for oil deposits for several years and was convinced that he’d find riches in the eastern Al-Hasa region the then embryonic Saudi nation. That handshake was one of the first baby steps in Saudi Arabia’s giant strides into the carbon energy business.