Irish Examiner view: Where are all the fast chargers?

Public charging infrastructure for EVs here remains insufficient

Targets are set for a reason, and the planet’s climate crisis would seem a very pertinent driver of change. It’s time to accelerate the process. File picture

A few years ago, having nearly 200,000 EVs on our roads would have been seen as a success. But, given that the Government’s target was for 1m, it’s fair to say our State’s ambition has exceeded its range.

And yet consider Norway, where almost every new car bought is an EV. True, the country has an enormous sovereign wealth fund and, true, everything in Norway is expensive. But it simply proves that where there’s a will, there’s a way. It is not uncommon to find a public charging site with as many as 24 bays, whereas the majority in Ireland would seem to be two or even just a single lonely sentinel, bar some on the motorways.

One imagines range anxiety to be less of an issue in a country with such facilities.

Public charging infrastructure here, meanwhile — fast charging, not just the 22kw slower plugs — remains insufficient. It is interesting that some private locations, such as CenterParcs, have set aside substantial numbers of parking spaces with overnight chargers, though it seems impossible for the same to be repeated in other parts of the country. For all the money earmarked and used for various charger projects, the volume never seems to materialise. Having only one site in a particular area does little, if it can only handle two cars at a time and everybody has to queue.

As Sean Murray’s report on Saturday noted, there is an appetite for EVs in this country, as shown in recent sales figures and reflected in the value of car loans. EVs frequently remain cheaper to run than fossil fuel cars, even if the inability to install chargers at home has soured the taste of transition somewhat for some drivers in Dublin, as reported elsewhere.

Rural Ireland remains something of a desert of fast chargers. Somebody driving from Cork City to Schull towards the tip of West Cork, for instance, will find rapid chargers in towns such as Clonakilty and Skibbereen, but will also find very few of them. And woe may well betide anybody who decides to follow the Wild Atlantic Way into Kerry, where rapid chargers are even rarer.

Targets are set for a reason, and the planet’s climate crisis would seem a very pertinent driver of change. It’s time to accelerate the process.

Europe could lead the way with space solar 

Speaking of climate crisis and switching away from fossil fuels, there was some good news for once — or at least, potential good news.

Researchers at King’s College London have suggested that space-based solar power could reduce Europe’s need for fossil fuels by 80% within 25 years. It would obviate any concerns about weather, and potentially reduce the cost of the electricity network as well as reduce battery use. Crucially, the panel technology has already been designed by Nasa, although the study factored in 2050 due to the envisaged costs of building such a solar network.

With Nasa facing stout budget cuts by the anti-intellectual American regime, some sort of licensing agreement (if it were applicable) might even bring in some extra funding for the agency, though one imagines there would be no shortage of possible space bodies looking to get involved, least of all the European Space Agency.

It is worth remembering that more solar energy hits the planet in an hour than Earth can use in a year, so a more
efficient way of capturing and using that power source is always welcome. Surely the American regime and its hatred of windmills and solar panels, ostensibly for aesthetic reasons, couldn’t complain too much if the panels weren’t taking up real estate on terra firma.

Japan, the team notes, is already including this form of energy in its plans to be net zero.

It would do European countries credit to be at the forefront of this, and who knows, if we make enough progress, we might even be able to navigate the climate crisis well enough that our children’s children will still have a planet to live happily on.

We could do with all the hope we can get our hands on.

Standing up for what is right

And rebellions, it is said, are built on hope.

But they’re also built on the actions of any number of individuals, who may or may not be working in tandem with other people. Sometimes all you need is a singular example of resilience, or innovation, or sheer defiance.

It doesn’t matter if the rebellion is political, social, economic, or consequential in the universal scale of things. Institutions may have power, but so do people, sometimes more so if used in the right ways.

Texas politician Nicole Collier’s recent protest against gerrymandering on the floor of the state legislature — having been locked in because she refused to sign a permission slip that required an escort to leave — counts as one. Did it avert the change to Texan districts, designed to cut Democrat representation? No. Did it remind people that they can stand up to bullying, no matter the bully? Perhaps.

But we have no shortage of examples. There are the 26 people in Limerick who clubbed together to save their local pub, with all the community and social benefits that brings. Maybe rural Ireland isn’t beaten after all.

And it travels all the way down to the parent giving a good example, or the teacher giving the right pastoral care that keeps a struggling student on course.

What stories of hope are motivating you? Let us know at [e-mail].

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