"Green" policies are destroying this country

Are you even aware of what is happening in the real world at present ? You do not need the predictions of world scientists to see it. Just switch on your TV or open a newspaper.

Like ourselves and Germany many European countries bought into the myth that there was no need for any other back-up for energy requirements to make up the shortfall from wind power other than gas. This has resulted in us facing a major energy crisis as we have shut down or downgraded our other power generating plants There is not going to be any surplus power available from any European country that is going to be supplied through imaginary interconnectors. Nuclear or otherwise, and certainly not in times of peak demand.

Even the Finns who have over 50% of their energy requirements supplied by renewables have gone back to harvesting turf as an energy source, so your choices are simple enough at this stage. It`s either LNG, turf, oil, coal or a combination of two or more, because as sure as God made little green apples we are looking at severe and long lasting blackouts otherwise.

Its a bit sad that you think Ireland building infrastructure to help us prosper in the 21st century is idealistic

Maybe we should go back to selling wheat to the British empire and hoping our potato crops don't fail.

I'm not the one who suggested emergency laws to overrule the planning decisions that refused the re-commissioning of the peat power plants, I must have missed the comment where you accused that poster opening the door to turning the Shannon into a landfill

If you have been paying attention then you should see by now that because of an agenda based on shutting down every other source of energy supply other than gas as back-up for wind power from one of the most corrupt and dangerous places in the world it was always highly likely, war or no war, to result in us being held hostage on supply and cost.

My point on taxes was that the Green Party`s love of using tax coercion to further their agenda was always going to hit the wall when it got to the point where people said enough is enough. That day is now here.

Yeah, Its a matter of political will. We have the technology we need

Lets just hope they have not been scrapped already..

The present Green party agenda goes back much further than this present administration, and their supporters have been on here repeatedly crowing about how coercive tax policies were going to force through their agenda whether people like it or not.

A bit late in the game to be attempting to absolve them of blame when the inevitable has now happened where people have said enough is enough on being gouged by taxes on fuel and energy prices.

Even the E.U. has come to realise that with a proposal to windfall energy supply companies profits. Even though their own idiotic pricing policy on energy supplies allowed these companies to also gouged their customers to amass those profits.

The more I hear and read from the Green Party and their supporters the more I am inclined to believe they are living in a fantasy world covered in money trees.

I never bought into the myth, but do not fool yourself it was a myth being pushed by greens that all that was needed was gas to make up the shortfall from wind turbines. It`s the reason that so many other energy plants have been shut down and the "reasoning" behind the plan to shut the largest oil fired plant in the country by next year and the largest coal fired plant two year later. Anyone with a bit of sense could see where this was going to lead before this present war when with just one gas fired plant being off line was going to result in blackouts last Winter.

Dying to hear how renewable technology is now supposed to fill the gap in even the short or medium term. If we hit the 2030 targets tomorrow, unless I have missed something it would not be enough to fill the gap we are looking at for gas. Especially with the greens so opposed to LNG.

22 years ago, obviously didn't work then.

There is developing problem right across Western Europe, every country is following the same agenda, that is move everyone off consuming primary sources of energy to secondary generation by means of electricity. In pursuit of that they want to expand electrical generation capacity using random energy sources like wind and sun and to make up for shortfalls by running an extension lead to the other countries grid while at the same time removing existing generation capacity, and with it the margin of error shrinks and the possibility of failure grows. Eirgrid have given warnings that they cannot guarantee there will be enough generation to meet demand in future and Dublin is already constrained.

As one example take Norway

Southern Norway seen tipping into power deficit by 2026, says grid operator

The problem Denmark is already heavily reliant on Norway for balancing its grid, taking surplus power when wind power is abundant, and returning it when it is short. Germany too is becoming increasingly dependent on Norway, for similar reasons. As coal and nuclear power are increasingly shut down, many countries including Britain are looking at Norway to fill the gap when random power is not performing. Wind turbine generated electricity dropped across Europe in 2021 and when the 'Dunkelflaute' can affect Europe for weeks at a time it will matter that no generation capacity exists to meet the increased demand. We are learning the expensive way that random energy generation has its limits.

Big problem is the Greens can't grasp that €5-6 grand electricity bills are something average people can't afford.

Don't seem to have much time for democracy either

Magical thinking is no substitute for a plan. All that material that needs to be put in place to harness random energy needs staggering amounts of minerals, metals and energy to be constructed, maintained, AND replaced every 10 to 20 years. Anyone putting wind turbines in the Atlantic will face serious infrastructure corrosion and maintenance problems, the payback time will need to be within 10 years because it will all have to be replaced by that point. I can easily foresee a future where the subsidies stop leaving the coast littered with rusting hulks of turbines because the companies have gone bust and abandoned them.

The energy from random generation fluctuates across a wide range and must be concentrated to be stored / used in batteries or mechanical storage (reservoirs with hydro-powered generators, e.g Turlough hill.) or chemical storage (converting electricity into hydrogen to be used as a fuel). Batteries don't last and there is nothing remotely "Green" about mining for lithium, cobalt, etc. or manufacturing billions of batteries. Recycling rates for lithium and cobalt are low less than 5% are recycled at their end of life.

• The Mining of Minerals and the Limits to Growth (March 2021)