"Green" policies are destroying this country

"If you want a rapid roll out of renewables, as the government does, you continue paying subsidies beyond the point where they are absolutely necessary."

Ok gotcha. So we are paying an unseemly rate because of the government's unseemly haste to save 0.0°C of warming. Just a timid suggestion: should we look at a more appropriate pace of rollout to save us loads of money without impacting those savings of 0.0°C of warming?

"The problem the Irish wind energy sector has faced for the last 20years is that the ESB has hobbled their expansion by only allowing a very limited number of grid connections on a competitive auction basis. A unrealised negative consequence of this model is that much of the wind has been installed in suboptimal locations where it was convenient for the ESB to offer connections - not in the best wind locations."

So we are now paying more to get less. Nice.

"Ireland after a promising start has fallen way behind on what it set out to achieve and is now in the expensive business of playing catch up to meet obligations it knew it had over a decade ago. This is why the government has committed to unreasonably high supports."

So why did Eamon Ryan pressure the EU to increase the targets for renewables penetration by 2030? A less fanatical approach would have saved money without affecting climate change. And now in an era when Germany and others are burning more coal, building LNG import facilities and scouring the world for hydrocarbons to buy, Ryan is banning LNG imports, scuppering local exploration (which would save CO2 emissions) and paying more for renewables than the UK is paying for nuclear! You couldn't make it up.

Does the phrase "batshit crazy" strike a chord with you at all???

"And the final strike price is part of the bidding process so not fixed at the high rates you quote."

Uh, the price I quoted is from the completed RESS 2 auction in May of this year. I cited the average strike price of €97/MWh for commercial projects and €116/MWh for community led projects. Strike prices apply for the RESS 2 Support Period which lasts until 2040. Those are the final strike prices.

"As is typical of the Irish state - it has made a strategic hash of it."

No, it has made a strategic hash of it and it continues to dig a bigger hole for itself, presumably so Ryan can keep polishing the green halo he keeps on the mantelpiece of his expensive home with the luxury eco fit-out.

Barbs aside, you do realise this is serious, serious stuff? It affects the competitiveness of the economy, the large number of people in energy poverty, and exchequer ability to pay for health and social welfare. Also, most of this stuff is currently going under the radar -- what's going to happen when the public wake up and realise they are getting screwed by yet another case of state ineptitude?

lol!! Oh I’ve heard it all now!

You establishing if a poster is avoiding answering questions?!

Wow.

In the future there will be no 'Peak' demand.

If electricity supply is so unreliable as you predict it will be, and if everyone has smart meters (which they will have) and electricity is priced according to real time demand (which is already happening on smart meter plans) then suddenly, it becomes completely sensible to charge a battery using off peak power, and run off that battery during the peak when electricity is expensive.

Flattening out the demand curve allows infrastrucure to be much much more efficient

If we could do the same thing with roads, we would never have a traffic jam again, and we wouldn't need to have such wide motorways.

Not too sure what that has got to do with green policies destroying this country.

But anyway going through that particular longwinded and doom laden academic paper - the general gist seems to be 'we've really don't know what the future is but hey if you give us some more money to keep us in academia, then that would be great'.

"We suggest that it is time to seriously scrutinize the best way to expand our research horizons to cover this field. The proposed “Climate Endgame” research agenda provides one way to navigate this under-studied area"

I'm fairly certain that at least a few of the authors of that particular academic paper cannot be deemed to be "climate scientists" with a number of academics listed from anthropology, humanities and life sciences

Interestingly enough I did however notice one of the main academic climate contributiors listed is one of Greta Thunberg climate advisors namely Johan Rockström  of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. The same Johan Rockström and Potsdam Institute for Climate research who were tied up with the now thoroughly debunked 'planetary health diet" promotion pushed by big food interests. Unfortunately the issues of climate change means that for some there are all too evident financial opportunities whether academic or otherwise.

Well, if there's a 20% chance that we can become committed to exceeding 4.5c of warming by 2050-2070, which puts the future of our species at significant risk then this would justify much higher carbon taxes, much faster investment in renewable and carbon free infrastructure, and much more political capital expended to put climate change on the very top of the global priorities list

You don't know what relevance this kind of study has to Ireland? The severity of the threat posed by climate change has massive implications for what 'green policies' Ireland will need to enact. Resources will need to be allocated to Mitigate and adapt. We will need to have contingencies in place. Food stockpiles, emergency shelters, distribution shelters, plans to deal with influxes in migrants from abroad, plans to deal with increased conflict, plans to deal with energy insecurity and resource shortages etc

But if I don’t have a battery I presume I will be paying high electricity prices?

You said you're a trained civil engineer. If I took you to a motorway that's still in construction and said to you 'Not a single journey has been made on this road. We need to abandon the project" you'd laugh at me.

We are in the beginning of decarbonising our grid. It is a process that we hope to have 80% completed by 2030 and fully 100% complete by 2050

We haven't built the infrastructure yet, so pointing at low generation capacity for a few weeks last year is a red herring.

I have already shown evidence that during this period of low wind onshore, there was loads of wind energy off our south and west coast and along the Irish sea

I don’t pay higher prices at peak times.

I have t activated my smart meter.

Still on the old plan.

This is just a basic stupid statement. It has always been Global warming, ie an average rise in temperature across the globe. Global warming causes Climate Change, ie a change in the weather patterns over an extended period (30 years to be precise) in a local region of the planet.

It was never one without the other.

Can you imagine the uproar if an energy saving policy like this was introduced here in Ireland. I'd say these things will become the norm in coming years.

It is equally as stupid as talk about how millions are going to die if we do not do something. Like increase carbon tax, and getting rid of half of our herd. While majority of the world population could not care less.

All that talk about renewables and some magical battery storage is make believe stuff not backed by any reality. There is no affordable technology invented yet not to mention built to support even bigger EV adoption but sure lets ban ICE cars and hope for the best.

Sorry but most of what you think that is going to happen is just crazy talk.

Do the Greens really think they can compel farmers to reduce their numbers of cattle? Don't they know that it would be unconstitutional to confiscate livestock?!

What's the point in reducing the national herd when beef is still imported from Brazil?

What's the point in banning peat-harvesting and turf-cutting when Ireland imports such fuel from abroad?

So the govt is going to confiscate livestock from any farmer who doesn't co-operate with the herd-reduction plan? It could lead to a battle going all the way to the European Court of Justice.

They installed one at my place last year but I've quite happily stayed on my existing plan. Got an email about a week after installation pushing the new plans but all I could see was that it would end up costing me more - no thanks.

I think Eamon Ryan or similar was talking about these new plans being made the default post install, but with an opt out option available for those who wanted it.

Then there's this of course....

You can be sure that those costs will be passed on.

Tbf fair Shoog you've got a fair few of basic facts wrong in this thread todate

The most recent being not knowing that its EirGrid and not the ESB who are responsible for providing Wind generation connections to the national grid and contrary to your assertions that

"much of the wind has been installed in suboptimal locations where it was convenient for the ESB to offer connections - not in the best wind locations"

When even a quick check shows that currently that wind generation is developer-led with wind farm developers selecting the sites and EirGrid being obliged to provide the connection to the grid or even that most wind farm developers have gone after the cheapest locations possible to install wind turbines which unfortunately too often have been marginal land in environmentally sensitive and/or remote areas

The IPCC say there is a 18% chance that ECS is greater than 4.5c but there is very little study of how that will be reached. There are also lots of studies that have found climate change happens non linearly (ie, there can be sudden abrupt changes) We should be studying these possibilities so we can be prepared for them.

You are not a risk taker, you've made it clear that you think Ireland's energy supply is insecure and this should be addressed by building more gas infrastructure. But what of the other risks that we know are plausible worst case scenarios (just like the 'plausible worst case scenario that Britain will cut us off from gas)

Should we not be creating policies to prepare for eventualities like sudden mass migration into Europe, food shortages, political instability caused by resource shortages? Or do we just sleep walk into disaster like we do with everything else?

You have to apply for a smart meter tariff. You won't be allowed to use any of the 'Smart' features of your meter unless you do, but the energy companies are being extremely opaque with their pricing and its very difficult to know what your bills will be until you move, and then they won't let you move back (by some accounts I've heard)

You are not a risk taker, you've made it clear that you think Ireland's energy supply is insecure and this should be addressed by building more gas infrastructure. 

I do not claim to know the future. And nope, its not me who "thinks" Irelands energy supply is insecure. That has already been well established by our Energy Regulator and others far above my pay grade.

Natural gas has been identified as a necessary transition fuel. We need to keep the lights on, whether we get inundated with hordes from outer Mongolia, our national cows run dry, Fianna Fáil decides to implement the next great cultural revolution or whatever.

There are all types of potential disasters out there. Thing is we have to be able to walk before we can run.

You've kinda proven yourself in the post above this one (#12035) why it's not a good idea to be wholly dependent on one source of energy - and you're right, the pricing arrangement and information offers no incentives beyond a vague notion of "more control" (which only applies anyway if you're in a position to be more flexible in your usage)

I currently am on a levelpay plan for my gas supply which means that I pay a fixed amount monthly regardless of the actual bill. Over the course of the year it evens out and by Autumn I generally am in several hundred euro in credit on the account. No bill shock or panic then in the winter when you do need the heating on - especially in a poorly built/insulated rental property that the landlord doesn't want to invest in/properly maintain.

I'm in no rush to move to a "smart" plan (also I have a very basic timer on the gas that doesn't allow any separation of rad/water heating or any real scheduling either) and given the last point above, I don't think I'll be seeing any heat pumps anytime soon either.