Irish Examiner view: Not too late for an energy revolution

We must now harness the power of offshore wind farms if we are to wean ourselves off our reliance on at-risk supplies of foreign energy sources.

We must now harness the power of offshore wind farms if we are to wean ourselves off our reliance on at-risk supplies of foreign energy sources.

In the early years of independence, Ireland remained a very poor country, yet we had the courage to rely on our own natural resources and become a world leader in the generation of electricity.

The Ardnacrusha scheme — or the Shannon Scheme as it became to be known — would not have come about had it not been for the vision of Irish engineer Thomas McLaughlin who joined Siemens in Berlin in 1922 and made the case with them for harnessing the power of the River Shannon. It was a triumph of German engineering, allied to Irish courage and confidence. The construction led to the establishment of the ESB in 1927 and was the first national, fully integrated electricity system in the world.