New ministers must devise a balanced energy policy
These changes can enable us to meet 2020 EU targets much more cost effectively without destroying ‘Brand Ireland’ and our national heritage. To facilitate this review of the current ‘all wind strategy’, an immediate suspension of all plans for any form of new power generation and associated transmission infrastructure such as pylons, 400 KV lines, substations and convertors should be introduced. This moratorium will enable a review of the latest renewable power technologies and still gives plenty of time to achieve 2020 targets.
At present, Ireland’s electricity generation policy is full of contradictions, is outdated and unnecessarily expensive. For example, the consumer pays PSO levies on their electricity bill to support the generation of electricity from peat as well as from wind. Peat generation produces high levels of CO2 per unit of electricity while the purported aim of wind power is to reduce CO2 emissions. To date, there has been no independent cost benefit analysis nor evidence base to support a further doubling of wind power and the new industrial scale pylons that directly result from this.
