Sir, – As I write we have about 2 per cent renewable on our power system, the rest is coal, gas and flat out import of about 20 per cent from our friendly neighbours in the UK! In the last month just 25 per cent of our energy was from wind.
Absolutely shameful that those responsible for our energy security, with their eyes wide open, have allowed it to come to this, – Yours, etc,
FINTAN RYAN,
Borris,
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Co Carlow.
Sir, – Due to the abject failure of the on-shore wind industry to meet its declared ambition to deliver abundant supplies of clean, green, cost effective and reliable electricity, the country now finds itself on the brink of electricity blackouts.
The blame for this is repeatedly pinned on data centres and their apparently unforeseen appetite for electricity, and of so-called serial objectors to planning applications for increasingly large clusters of wind turbines in rural environments.
Independent examination and cost assessment of what developers of these enterprises have actually achieved is long overdue. For example the wind energy industry has not significantly reduced fossil fuel use or carbon emissions and not delivered the “cheaper electricity for consumers” it promises.
It has however ruined many landscapes and natural habitats as well as many rural communities’ quality of life; cost the national purse in fines for failure to carry out proper environmental impact assessments of wind farm projects, and destabilised the Eirgrid network due to the wildly fluctuating nature of its energy delivery.
– Yours, etc,
RICHARD
MORE-O’FERRALL
Tinahely, Co Wicklow.