"Green" policies are destroying this country

The difference I would see there Da is for those 500 previous alerts we were not planning on shutting down plants to replace their output with wind energy that has shown just how unreliable it is. And before you mention the nine new plants to ensure no blackouts, all those plants will be natural gas burning.

I am no fan of coal or oil burning plants, but along with LNG is it not time we took a hard serious look at planned plant shutdown as well and how viable that actually is at present with a natural gas situation that is not going to improve anytime soon.

Gas and coal making up 81% of electricity generation at the moment.

Gas on its own 61%

Corrib contributes 50% of that gas.

Corrib gone in 3 years.

What’s the plan then?

So you keep claiming despite the vast amounts of investment being applied to renewables year on year.

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/renewable-power-investment-2012-2020

And still our electricity costs are rising year on year because of the EU green energy policy of pegging prices to the most expensive/most taxed elements of any energy generation mix regardless whether 1% or 99.9% energy generated is from renewables.

And no amount of additional renewables are going to change that unfortunately.

Solar farms may ultimately be more acceptable but I'm sure there are manufacturing downsides there. Certainly less intrusive on the skyline and no moving parts.

I'm not sure they will necessarily be more acceptable. Solar farms proposals are generally located in rural / agricultural areas at a distance from urban areas.

It has been estimated that Ireland could require an additional 5,400 acres of solar farms by 2030 in addition to existing and planned solar farm installations , bringing the total area to close to 10,000 acres.

Now the things the greens don't tell us about these solar farms is that they require large open areas of land unhindered by any trees or hedgerows. And in Ireland that requires the permanent removal and destruction of huge areas of hedgerows and potentially millions of trees. Add to that the loss of habitat that hedgerows provide to native birds, insects and animals and birds.

And not a peep out of the greens about that.

The industrial scale deployment of solar panels are not being done on waste land, they are not covering bogs, they are covering acres and acres of farmland. You could probably justify covering sheds and shed like buildings on industrial estates, then again this is all about subsidies, somebody has to work harder to earn the money to pay the subsidies.

The amount of shite posted on this thread, if it was burned we wouldn't need to import any gas from anywhere

Solar farms can be integrated into land used for sheep grazing BTW and can actually increase biodiversity if done right

10000 acres is nothing in the context of how much land there is in Ireland

The is 10 million acres of grassland in Ireland. Proper planning could easily see 10000 acres of solar without even diminishing the amount of land available for grazing

Incorrect.

These are not some pretty backyard solar panals. They are industrial sized energy generation installations. Dont kid yourself otherwise.

Solar farms require the removal and destruction of hedgerows, trees, habitats and other landscape features. And 10000 acres with hedgerows and trees is a huge area of habitat for native birds, animals and insects.

The same hedgerows, trees and habitats we have the greens continously banging on about. But oddly enough not in this instance

No one mentioned grazing btw

The quacks on this thread pushing solar are ignoring the duck curve. Lets see what happens to grid management costs (and our electricity bills) when you put uncontrolled solar roof top generation on the grid. Who would have thought clouds would become a problem. Electricity at the wrong time is not just wasted, it’s a burden. Where does the generation come from before sun rises and when the sun sets? which also coincide with peak demand.

And no batteries are not a solution either. economics and materials supply works against that.

Oh and don't you dare pretend to care about biodiversity when calling for more fossil fuels and arguing against renewable energy. Climate change is devastating biodiversity all around the world. We're rapidly running out of time to save the great barrier reef and amazon rainforest (for example)

The only way to save the Amazon is to create a significant military force that goes in and kills all the ranchers. Good luck with that.

It's the worst environmental tragedy on the planet but having watched it happen and get talked about since the late 70's, with no action, I have given up hope anything will ever be done about it.

That's simply a minimum area considered viable. The majority of planned installations will cover extensive areas of agricultural land. And as detailed the total area designated for development is 10000 acres, possibly more.

I am not against Solar farms as you seem to think. However what should be acknowledged is that their development will require significant environmental damage and the removal of existing landscape features including hedgerows and trees. And not a peep about that.

No one mentioned grazing livestock btw.

The amazon is being threatened by deliberate deforestation, which is shameful, but you could bring in that army you mentioned and the forest will continue to decline due to droughts and heat stress because of climate change.

They also "plan" to close the coal generation plant in Moneypoint by 2025, you know the one that has the capacity to store 3 months of fuel on site. The plan ( I am not joking) is that climate change means the weather in this country becomes sunnier and windier. That 1000MW generation can be added through "demand management" (i.e. kick them off the grid to use diesel generators), that a 500KM long extension cord to France will supply the green power via nuclear generation . . . . forgetting that the French plants have aged and need more maintenance and downtime and forgetting that much of Western Europe is pulling from that source as well. Someone also thinks we can make up the difference in gas supply by tapping Norway and piping it to the country through Moffat. Did I mention we intend to increase the demand for electricity generation by installing 400,000 heat pumps by 2030 and a million electric cars? Silly question really where is all the money coming from for these dreams?