Running on empty
YOU woke up this morning to the sound of your electrically-powered radio alarm clock. You used the electric shower before throwing on some clothes and racing downstairs to grab a coffee and slice of toast before flopping into your car to join the early morning gridlock that chokes our towns and cities.
From the moment you open your eyes in the morning until you wrap the duvet around you tonight, your lifestyle is made possible by energy.
From electricity, to gas and oil, our home lives, working days and even our leisure time is entirely dependent on imported energy.
This energy supply is however not guaranteed and global, geological and environmental factors are conspiring to make an energy crisis a very real prospect.
Here, in Ireland, with our under developed public transport system, appalling town planning, sniggering disregard for sustainability and our over-dependence on fossil fuels, we will feel the chill more than anyone.
We have the seventh most dependant economy on imported fossil fuels. Globally, there are still huge supplies of oil and coal left but gas is getting scarce. Nobody denies the scarcity with the only argument really being when oil and gas supplies will peak.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that oil output can go on increasing for the next 25 years — but only if enough capital is invested in finding and producing it.
Chris Skrebowski, the editor of the Petroleum Review, thinks that the peak will be reached in the next couple of years.
“There are not enough large-scale projects in the development pipeline right now to offset declining production in mature oil fields and to meet global demand growth beyond 2007,” he says.
According to Sustainable Energy Ireland, Ireland’s total energy requirement grew by 67% between 1990 and 2006 — with increased car and freight usage a huge part of this hike. Fossil fuels accounted for 96% of all energy used in Ireland in 2006 with oil by far the most common form — it made up to 56.4% of our fossil fuel usage in 2006 compared to 47% in 1990. Natural gas forms another 25% of our fossil fuel dependency while peat comprises another 4.4% and coal just over 10%. Ironically, while coal is the only fossil fuel still in ready supply globally, it’s usage has slipped by 22% in the past 15 years.
All of this paints a rather vulnerable picture — any instability in the international markets and we have very few alternatives to turn to. Latest figures show that renewable energy makes up just 2.7% of the Irish energy market with wind the biggest player at 0.9%. It’s not all gloomy though. The Scandinavians, Germans and Spanish may have woken up before us, but our usage of renewable energy grew by 15% during 2006 and since 1990 by 151%.
On their own, both world energy supply trends and the impact of climate change underline the need to increase investment in renewable energies.
But fears about the security of our energy supply are emerging.
If in the ’60s and ’70s we thought we’d perish in the wake of a leaking nuclear reactor, now commentators inspire fear with talk of a global famine (as biofuels are eating up all our food) or the Kremlin refusing to allow the EU buy its oil or gas.
So what of energy security? How dependent are we on imports and on a foreign supply and distribution network? Our island status means that we’re one of the more vulnerable countries but we are closely linked to the EU network. Irish energy usage increased by 79% between 1990 and 2006 but at the same time, production at the Kinsale Natural Gas field has fallen away, as has peat production. It all adds up to making us even more dependent on imported energy.
According to Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), in 1990 we imported 54% of our energy needs and but now that figure is at a sobering 91%. The only way we are going to get independent is if the Corrib Gas Field gives indigenous production a sharp upward push and if renewable energy targets for 2010 are met and exceeded, says SEI.
Senior lecturer in UCC’s new energy engineering course, Dr Brian Ó Gallachóir warns that our lack of oil and gas resources means “we have absolutely no control” over the variability in international prices.
“Oil is very near reaching peak production worldwide and natural gas is tied in with oil. We are going to become much more dependent on Russian, Middle Eastern and Norwegian gas. Also, we’re at the very end of the European pipeline so it will cost us that bit more,” he warns.
Our obsession with cars has also its own problems for the future. Since, 1990 importation of oil, largely driven by transportation needs, has risen by 85% and this push has been largely driven by the increased number of cars on the road. Overall, our importation of energy is made up of 64% oil, 24% gas and 11% coal. Electricity accounted for just one per cent of imports. However, dwindling gas supplies in Ireland and Britain means it will becomes more difficult to access and hence more expensive. This will have a knock-on effect on our electricity costs which are already 19% above the EU average, the third highest after Italy and Germany.
Irish industry pays 32% over the EU average, more than all other member states except Cyprus.
“One advantage that we have is that our industry exposure to energy problems is low. In the type of light industry that we have, energy costs are not an enormous factor. We don’t have steel manufacturing and the like,” says Mr Ó Gallachóir
“This lessens our economic exposure to fluctuations. However, we have to seriously address the type of fuels that we are using in our cars and more particularly, in freight transport. In the past 16 years, there has been a three-and-a-half fold increase in road freight and that has had huge implications.”
According to Mr Ó Gallachóir, biofuels are a big part of the solution. But, as the protests in Haiti and Mexico over rising food prices demonstrate, the biofuel goldrush could be at the expense of the poor — if farmers see more profit in selling for fuel rather than food.
“Biofuel projects are taking place around the country. But, I see their big impact in captive fleets where all the vehicles are serviced by pumps at company branches. Getting them to change to bio fuel would have a huge infrastructural impact on energy needs and our carbon emissions.”
While it’s widely acknowledged that we have lost time in planning for the energy revolution. Mr Ó Gallachóir, like many others, thinks change has begun. “With the inclusion of the Greens in government, things have ramped up significantly. Things like the new building regulations and the banning of the old light bulbs will all serve to reduce our energy needs. There’s also a planned grant system around insulation and a pilot project looking at smart meters so we can get more aware of how we waste energy. We did however waste huge opportunities. We had the biggest house build in our history in the past 10 years and we wasted the opportunity to improve energy efficiency regulations then. All those houses should, and could have, been done to a higher spec,” says Mr Ó Gallachóir.
The profound implications of energy insecurity on our most basic energy supply — electricity — has not been lost on the British and Irish governments of late. Electricity supply interconnectors are being developed with the North so that each of the small markets can rely on the generation capacity of the other market and so we can trade electricity at more competitive rates as entrepreneurs will see more profit in a bigger market. We also now have a common north/south energy market. The White Paper on Energy wants to expand that interconnected market further into northwest Europe and make us less dependent on Russian and Mideast gas politics.
We already have interconnectors — albeit small ones — linking us to the North. Another 400 Kv Tyrone-Cavan one is to be developed while EirGrid is also developing, via undersea cables beneath the Irish sea, a connection between Woodland County Meath and Deeside in North Wales — further enhancing our British links. In a second project, Imera Power is developing another privately funded east-west interconnector — hoping to make money from wholesale energy traders who want to use the system.
Work is also underway to develop a €500 million liquidified gas terminal at Shannon which will bring in shipped gas which can then be stored on site. The inclusion of liquidified gas in our national supply will allow us to source gas from a wider number of suppliers.
Eco-architect, Duncan Stewart has long championed the green cause. Like the former oil magnates who have now moved into wind energy, he is now trying the green economy argument to the masses. “The potential for the deployment of renewable energy in Ireland is huge, particularly from wind, biomass, solar and ocean sources,” he told a Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly Conference last year.
“While the long-term environmental benefits are obvious to almost everybody now, an often-overlooked benefit is that investment in renewable energy technologies can provide a major economic boost.
“Furthermore, as was found in countries like Denmark, the employment potential in rural areas, of renewable and sustainable energy products, is far greater than conventional energy production systems and provides huge export opportunities.”
Things are going to have to change over the next 20 years but it’s not going to be some neo hippy dream where our give up consumerism and urban tractors for vegetarianism and cycling around with kids strapped on the back. There is one notion, unpalatable to many, which will have to be seriously discussed.
According to enterprise and innovation think tank, Fórfás, a small-scale nuclear power station has to be considered. ICTU general secretary David Begg agrees.
Even Energy Minister Eamon Ryan of the Greens has called for a debate. Nuclear power, once the big, bad wolf, is now being seen as a possible saviour. Carbon emissions are minimal and reactor safety is vastly improved since Chernobyl. Uranium supplies while not infinite like wind are not in freefall.
France is a leader in wind and nuclear power generation and Finland is currently building a nuclear plant. In the US, companies have begun filing licence applications and Gordon Brown announced plans to build 10 more nuclear stations in Britain.
With Britain increasing its investment in nuclear and us improving our interconnectivity with our neighbours, more of our electricity will inevitable be imported from nuclear reactors. Is that not just Irish hypocrisy on a global scale?
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
