However, there is one dark cloud on the horizon we need to address and that is Ireland's dreadfully precarious energy situation.
There is opposition to solar farms to offshore and onshore wind farms nuclear options and the dependence on vulnerable undersea cables and pipelines.
Jim is more than familiar with the solar farm issue in Waterford. There is growing opposition to wind farms off the south coast ( the campaigners want to cancel the wind farm site 12 km off the coast and move it to 22km offshore in 80m sea depth!!! ) Ask any engineer who worked on offshore oil how practical that will be. There are no floating wind farms operating in waters as stormy as the north Atlantic either.
In terms of fossil fuels it is utterly bizarre that the extension of the Corrib gas field cannot continue and the refusal to licence the Barryroe prospect off the south coast is madness. Neither of these projects would cost the state but would enhance out energy resilience immensely. The views of Irish Academy of Engineering are wilfully ignored.
I could go on but this is an aspect of the economy wit ignore at our peril !!!
It's a problem not restricted to Ireland. We could build enough Wind Energy around GB and Ireland to supply all our needs and become big exporters as well. It's truly weird why we don't do this. or perhaps not. We have absorbed the idea that all building is bad. Personally, I think preserving our cities in aspic - only build something low rise and nothing involving modern architecture - is just nuts. I think wind farms are actually quite beautiful.
The lazy, standard replies go something like this:
1. Wind farms are ugly. See my comment above. In any event, ugliness that gives us energy security and stops the flow of cash to Putin? A no-brainer in my view
2. The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine......the critics are just lazy, they haven't noticed that battery tech is improving in leaps and bounds, the problem of storage is being solved!
3. Wind farms kill birds....so do tall buildings and their glass windows. So do domestic cats. etc.
Mostly a good news story, but it’s precarious enough! The spending increases will jump again … tax is not quite the bottomless pit the Gov seem to think it is!
This is indeed good news.
However, there is one dark cloud on the horizon we need to address and that is Ireland's dreadfully precarious energy situation.
There is opposition to solar farms to offshore and onshore wind farms nuclear options and the dependence on vulnerable undersea cables and pipelines.
Jim is more than familiar with the solar farm issue in Waterford. There is growing opposition to wind farms off the south coast ( the campaigners want to cancel the wind farm site 12 km off the coast and move it to 22km offshore in 80m sea depth!!! ) Ask any engineer who worked on offshore oil how practical that will be. There are no floating wind farms operating in waters as stormy as the north Atlantic either.
In terms of fossil fuels it is utterly bizarre that the extension of the Corrib gas field cannot continue and the refusal to licence the Barryroe prospect off the south coast is madness. Neither of these projects would cost the state but would enhance out energy resilience immensely. The views of Irish Academy of Engineering are wilfully ignored.
I could go on but this is an aspect of the economy wit ignore at our peril !!!
It's a problem not restricted to Ireland. We could build enough Wind Energy around GB and Ireland to supply all our needs and become big exporters as well. It's truly weird why we don't do this. or perhaps not. We have absorbed the idea that all building is bad. Personally, I think preserving our cities in aspic - only build something low rise and nothing involving modern architecture - is just nuts. I think wind farms are actually quite beautiful.
The lazy, standard replies go something like this:
1. Wind farms are ugly. See my comment above. In any event, ugliness that gives us energy security and stops the flow of cash to Putin? A no-brainer in my view
2. The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine......the critics are just lazy, they haven't noticed that battery tech is improving in leaps and bounds, the problem of storage is being solved!
3. Wind farms kill birds....so do tall buildings and their glass windows. So do domestic cats. etc.
I totally agree. Attitude to alternative energy is nuts. I cannot show my face in Clonea following my intervention!
Mostly a good news story, but it’s precarious enough! The spending increases will jump again … tax is not quite the bottomless pit the Gov seem to think it is!
Indeed that is the real story.