Solar energy a more reliable option than wind

WHY should the EU expect individual member states to achieve a 40% target of all electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020?

Conditions in each country are so variable and unpredictable.

The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) is prepared to invest a colossal €14bn in wind farms. The main beneficiaries here are going to be the companies or landowners with the good luck to be granted planning permission.

How the projected 10,000 jobs are to be created remains debatable since, apart from the initial set-up stage, it is not a labour intensive venture.

We know the sun will continue to bombard us with 9,000 times more power than is needed to run every car, heat every home and energise every electrical gadget and factory on earth.

Of all the energy sources, from fossil fuels to renewables, solar is the most sustainable, inexhaustible, pure and consistent means of power in existence.

It is the responsibility of the EU, with the support of its member states, to make a joint effort to supply all its solar energy requirements.

According to Boston University environmental scientist Prof Anthony Patt, this could be done by lining 0.2% of the Sahara desert with concentrated solar technology, costing maybe €50bn.

Not an exorbitant sum relevant to the €14bn input by the IWEA to a less predictable alternative.

With the prospect of investment by other vested interests as well, this could be the key to the clean, sustainable future economy we are all going to need.

James Gleeson

‘The Grove’

Turtulla

Thurles

Co Tipperary