Sir, – We have “unplanned technical failures” at two of our most modern electricity generating plants, but even when they are back to full capacity we will face five years or more of potential winter power cuts.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Climate Eamon Ryan’s answer is two new interconnectors to the UK and France.
The main connection between those countries is currently down following a fire, and the UK faces outages as a result. In 2017 the main UK-France connection was severed by a cargo ship. This Government plan will not protect us from power failures.
Lack of generating capacity is one cause of energy price rises. Our national strategy for electricity generation must include a system that is local, does not require gas or oil, and works 24/7 regardless of weather conditions. The solution is obvious. The Government seem determined to keep us in the dark. – Yours, etc,
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MICHAEL O’SHEA,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
A chara, – In 1999, under Fianna Fáil governance, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) was set up as an independent body to regulate the Irish electricity sector accountable to an Oireachtas committee “for the performance of its functions”.
In 2002, again under Fianna Fáil governance, they have been allowed to charge a Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy to “all electricity customers without exception to facilitate and support the generation of electricity from renewable, sustainable and indigenous recourses”.
Every one of us has been paying this levy for nearly 20 years now, and to date only one electricity generating company in this country claims their energy comes from 100 per cent renewables.
Every household in the country can expect another price hike in their electricity bill over the coming year, many who have relied on solid fuel to heat their homes for years but will no longer be allowed under new legislation coming next year, while some power plants using the same fuel will have to be put in operation again to meet demand.
Someone please tell me where the money has gone and what is the use of the CRU?
– Yours, etc,
KATHLEEN WOUMANS,
Leap,
West Cork.
Sir, – Wind energy is necessary because it is green and makes the investors, whoever they might be, rich.
Regardless of the absence of evidence as to quite how green wind turbines are, who they benefit and how, they seem set to be with us for a long time.
As a citizen who has been involved in environmental protection and education for over thirty years, I would like to make a suggestion: let’s re-forest Dublin Bay with windmills, which will doubtless be compared to the giant redwoods in California in all except colour and will, if we are to believe what we are told in Connemara, have almost no visual impact on the population, nor interfere with their health.
County Dublin and surrounds are where most of the power is needed, so there will be the added advantage of saving energy on transport. The possibilities are endless, think of the Dublin mountains and the Wicklow hills covered in a white forest and you get the idea. All feeding into the grid, fuelling cars and data centres close to source, which is, after all, what protecting the environment is about.
I for one, would be delighted at the prospect of taking the ferry from Dún Laoghaire through such a futuristic seascape.
There is one further advantage to this plan. When, as is inevitable, something better comes along and the windmills have to be scrapped, where better to set up and carry out what will be a logistical nightmare but in the capital?
– Is mise le meas,
MARY O’MALLEY,
Maigh Cuilinn,
Co na Gaillimhe.