"Green" policies are destroying this country

We will see if your thoughts on this change when/if gas supplies become constrained in Europe and we can’t get our hands on supplies to generate electricity or heat homes.

It would be nice to be able to call on the reserves we could’ve built up over the last while.

Also- what’s the problem with CNG stored in tanks? (Compressed natural gas).

Private investors want short turn around on capitol. That is why almost all of the major infrastructure projects have been financed by government or government bond issues. The Hoover Dam is a perfect example - as is Ardnacrusha.

I have suggested many solutions here, the fact that you don't like them is not material to whether they are useful contributions.

How the hell would any such facility be a "stranded asset" (new favourite green buzz term apparently) when we knew we will need natural gas as a transition fuel for at least the next 30 years?

Thing is investors won't shy away from viable investment opportunities whether they are for renewables or alternative sources of energy.

Lol again with the mudslinging, and throwing the kitchen sink, fridge and just about else into the mix to try and persuade everyone that we can somehow magic up sufficient electricity through unreliable renewables.

Once Ryan is gone, reckon we won't have to listen to any more of this type of withering about how Ireland alone can somehow manage without a reliable form of energy generation through the period of transition to renewables. The news for you is we can't.

No its about actual solutions that can be implemented relatively quickly. Nuclear and LNG are not solutions to Irelands issues.

Nothing is easy but proposing to solve one problem with an even worse solution (such as LNG) are not solutions.

The robovac reservoir is being built to supply water to the nuclear reactor that we're building on the NI border (mostly to annoy the Unionists)

Simple answer. Its not. Look up the multitude of investment companies building power plants in the UK and Europe. The Broadband scheme here was instigated because rural areas were not seen as a viable investment vehicle by investors. Ditto your pumped storage ideas. At present it's a complete a non runner for the purpose and at the scale you're proposing.

A truly shocking proposal that only a engineer sitting on their arse in an office looking at GIS models on a screen could dream up - a supreme act of Eco Vandalism as pointed out above.

If Turlough Hill reservoir were to be proposed today, the idea would go up in flames. Sometime in the 80s, there was an idea floated by the ESB I think to dam & flood Luggala valley in Wicklow as a hydro/ pumped scheme. Thankfully the idea was rejected firmly.

Its a viable proposal - as viable as nuclear in Ireland at least.

You wanna bet? Your construction examples like the Hoover Dam and Ardnacrusha are all well in the past and not relevant

In the UK the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme for Nuclear Power plants etc enabled developers to finance the construction of nuclear projects and only begin receiving revenue when the station starts generating electricity. The CfD approach was used to finance Hinkley Point C, with the developer agreeing to pay the entire cost of constructing the plant, in return for an agreed fixed price for electricity output once the plant is online.

Investment companies here already have raised huge amounts of capital (on the basis of guaranteed prices for all energy produced) for large-scale renewable energy generation.

As noted by someone else, you would need 100 Turlough Hills to provide backup for Ireland's energy demand. You say it's a well proven technology, but not in the form proposed -- seawater pumped hydro has only ever been implemented on a small scale. Ironically, many of the objections are environmental. As it happens I'm a big fan of the idea but the engineering challenges are large, including the need for impervious reservoir linings. It's probably decades of construction, especially when you consider Ireland's well-known bottlenecks with planning for everything. I'm sure An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment would have a field day. Pretty much everyone is wary of funding engineering and infrastructure projects in Ireland -- even windpower projects -- due to our planning lethargy.

We are going to keep on burning fossil fuels for power in this country or we are going to have no power. There is no route to 100% sustainable supply from renewables that is going to take less than decades to implement, if ever. The only question is whether Ryan continues to hobble our security of supply with his persistent zealotry and refusal to face facts.

Nuclear is doing O.K in France. Their electricity bills last year were 50% cheaper than here. In fact they are going to build more. Not surprising when they look next door and see the massive fortune Germany has spent on renewables and the hole that has left them in.