We are perfectly positioned to harvest the wind

I WAS disappointed to read the one-sided and somewhat inaccurate letter from historian Dr Colmán Etchingham (Irish Examiner letters, November 18).

The average amount of useful wind in Ireland vastly exceeds that in Germany, and in fact most of the rest of Europe, because of our lucky position right out on the edge of the western Atlantic seaboard.

We waste a colossal natural resource by letting it flow unhindered north-eastward into Europe.

German electricity companies pay up to three times per kilowatt-hour to external suppliers compared to the paltry amount offered within the country probably because they have to in order to attract any German wind generation at all.

In countries such as Germany and Switzerland, electricity generation policies actively encourage non-network generators to connect to their national grids by offering up to €0.195 per kilowatt-hour.

In Ireland we lag a little in this area, with institutional reluctance contributing to the lack of easy and lucrative connection of smaller producers. Irish wind-farms could be incredibly economic, not to mention profitable, if operators could only command market value for their product. The one accurate point that Dr Etchingham does make is that we currently have to use thermal power stations in conjunction with variable energy sources.

Conventional power stations can be ‘backed off’ (reducing their fuel consumption) when the wind blows or the tide is high. Once fossil fuels run out, thermal power stations magically become white elephants, and the only way to use variable resources such as wind, wave and tide in the future will be to store the energy while it is available.

One way to do this is to use pumped hydroelectric systems, storing the energy as it arrives and releasing it as required. Another is to use the wind-generated electricity to produce hydrogen by electolysing water.

The hydrogen could then be burnt in the otherwise useless thermal power stations, or used to power our ever-increasing fleet of motor vehicles.

Rather than whimper about the ‘disfiguration’ of the environment by wind turbines, Dr Etchingham might apply himself to calculating the total volume of electricity pylons, telephone poles, TV transmitters and mobile phone masts which have now turned much of Ireland into a giant scrapyard.

The disfiguration, regrettably, has already happened. He might also give himself a good fright by calculating the cost of putting the ESB and telecoms landline networks where they should have been put in the first place — underground and out of sight. Then the disfiguration caused by wind farms would be seen in its true perspective.

Regarding the commercial side, An Bord Pleanála recently prevented the construction of a sorely-needed wind-farm in the Wexford area, based on local residents’ complaints about the intrusion which was going to be caused. It emerged that the project was being promoted by a Dutch company.

I imagine that if the wind-farm and the profits from it were locally-owned, it would be pumping out the kilowatts already.

Dr Etchingham should not insult our intelligence by suggesting that the supply of energy can be anything but commercially-driven.

In due course, all these arguments will fade into triviality when the camel’s back finally breaks and the first shipment of crude fails to make its delivery date to Whitegate.

Then it won’t just be seagulls that hit the fan.

Jim McLay

Nohoval

Co Cork