Schoolgirl who lobbied Obama visits energy centre

THE schoolgirl who wrote an inspirational letter to Barack Obama pleading for action on climate change has visited Ireland’s power control hub.

Niamh Burke, aged 17, from Rochestown in Cork, wrote the letter — published in the Irish Examiner last month — as a homework assignment.

Writing as the “air”, she urged President Obama to harness wind energy to produce clean renewable energy for the whole planet.

It was so good, Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin said he would ensure it was delivered to the Oval Office.

Dermot Byrne, chief executive of EirGrid — Ireland’s national grid operator — read the letter in this newspaper and was impressed too.

He issued an invitation to Niamh and her family to visit EirGrid’s National Control Centre (NCC) in Ballsbridge, Dublin, where highly skilled engineers balance supply and demand for power in Ireland second-by-second, 24-hours a day.

They must monitor the situation constantly to match electricity production to customer demand.

Niamh, her parents and two brothers, were given a special tour of the NCC facility by Mr Byrne.

They also got the chance to discuss Ireland’s target to have 40% of electricity generation from renewable energy by 2020, which EirGrid said it is on target to meet.

As of last May, more than 1,000 wind farms were connected to the national grid.

Almost 1,500 more are contracted to be connected between now and 2014.