Energy crisis - We must not ignore our renewables

This country could have a particularly — and literally — dark future unless it gets its energy act together.

Electrical power, gas or oil play a vital role in generating the technology that has become an indispensable part of our daily lives.

Irish energy usage increased by 79% between 1990 and 2006. At the beginning of that period we were importing 54% of our energy needs but that figure is now at a staggering 91%.

This highlights the importance of the Corrib gas field in giving indigenous production a boost.

Energy costs are rising, and the seemingly unlimited supply on which we have been depending is rapidly declining. Yet virtually nothing has been done to ensure that we can cope with the impending crisis.

We persist in ignoring transportation problems, the lack of proper public transport, appalling town planning and we have a sniggering disregard for our dependence on oil, even though we have the seventh most dependent economy on fossil fuels.

Experts argue about the amount of oil reserves, but there is little doubt that oil prices are rising.

Being an island we have the added cost of importing oil and gas, and this drives up the price of most other things.

Electricity costs are the third highest in the EU, behind only Italy and Germany, and 19% above the EU average. Irish industry pays 32% above the EU average. This is more than any other EU county, with the exception of Cyprus.

The production of biofuels has been touted as an alternative source of energy, but these have been displacing food production and this had led to riots over food prices in almost 40 countries. Fórfás, the innovation think-tank, argues that a small-scale nuclear power station should be considered a more realistic alternative source of energy, and this option should certainly be re-examined.

As an island nation, we have enormous resources that could be tapped in the form of wind, tidal, and solar power, but the potential to exploit these forms of renewable energy have been largely ignored. Renewable energy makes up just 2.7% of the Irish energy market.

Some degree of satisfaction can be derived from the fact that our wind-generated electricity increased by 15% in 2006 and by 151% since 1990. While wind plays the biggest part in generating renewable energy in this country, it still consists of less than 1% of the overall total.

This is a pathetic statistic.

Wind farms generate more than 40% of Spain’s electricity requirements, powering the great cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Seville. By 2020 the ESB hopes to generate a third of its electricity through renewable energy, but the total it is aiming for is less than a tenth of what Spain is currently generating by wind.

When it comes to the impending energy crisis, we have done much, and there is a lot to do.