Job creation from the National Renewable Energy Plan and

Engineer101

Can anyone see the National Renwable Energy Plan being completed? It states the Government wants to be producing 40% of Irelands electricity by renewable energy sources by 2020, think at the moment its currently 15%. Obviously this would lead to huge job creation but is it going to happen?

I also seen that Fine Gael plan to invest 5 to 6 billion in smart grid technology
to stimulate job creation, I cant find the document in question but I think its similar to this article http://corkpolitics.ie/wp/?p=5069

Do people reckon this is going to happen?

I was thinking about pursuing a career in this but if its all false promises I wouldnt bother. The renewable energy sector seems to have big potential but it doesnt appear that much is happening bar open hydro

dardhal

There is no need for government intervention or public plans / finance to make profitable business pop up if there is indeed a profit to be done. I believe that certain renewables are already profitable at current end user energy prices, in Ireland that would be wind power. Moder wind turbines are huge and very expensive, but yield big amounts of power that, at current network prices, would make them profitable in 10-20 years, which is not bad at all for power generation.

Of course, risks go down and profit goes up if the government pumps money into the wind energy sector, but the government doesn't have the money, the need (and probably, the will) to do so. Despite that, I think combined wind and hydro energy in Ireland can only increase several fold in Ireland in coming years. I think it's a wise carreer path, and those beasts not only require skilled labor to build and initially install, but also to maintain.

djpbarry

Engineer101 wrote: »

I was thinking about pursuing a career in this but if its all false promises I wouldnt bother.

If it's something you're interested in just go for it - don't let the whims of the government of the day influence your career choice. Besides, as a qualified electrical engineer, control systems engineer, etc., (I presume that's the sort of thing you're thinking of?) you'll have plenty of transferable skills.

uch

The potential for job creation is huge, it's whether the beurocrats can get their fingers out of their holes and do something about it, saw an article on RTE recently where a co. in Clare are ready to go with a wind farm, have permission but can't get a connection to National grid for about 5 years, the ESB are a semi-state co. so why cant the Government prioritise this as it will create much needed jobs.

pljudge321

uch wrote: »

The potential for job creation is huge, it's whether the beurocrats can get their fingers out of their holes and do something about it, saw an article on RTE recently where a co. in Clare are ready to go with a wind farm, have permission but can't get a connection to National grid for about 5 years, the ESB are a semi-state co. so why cant the Government prioritise this as it will create much needed jobs.

I imagine they are waiting for the distribution network in the area to be uprated or a new line to be installed, something which takes a seriously long time to do in any country. They might also be waiting for other windfarms in the area to get the go ahead to make such an uprating partly financially viable.

pljudge321

Engineer101 wrote: »

Can anyone see the National Renwable Energy Plan being completed? It states the Government wants to be producing 40% of Irelands electricity by renewable energy sources by 2020, think at the moment its currently 15%. Obviously this would lead to huge job creation but is it going to happen?

I also seen that Fine Gael plan to invest 5 to 6 billion in smart grid technology
to stimulate job creation, I cant find the document in question but I think its similar to this article http://corkpolitics.ie/wp/?p=5069

Do people reckon this is going to happen?

I was thinking about pursuing a career in this but if its all false promises I wouldnt bother. The renewable energy sector seems to have big potential but it doesnt appear that much is happening bar open hydro

Im just on the last legs of my degree. For an electrical engineer with a good degree there are a plethora of jobs both here and internationally.

Pete_Cavan

Engineer101 wrote: »

Can anyone see the National Renwable Energy Plan being completed? It states the Government wants to be producing 40% of Irelands electricity by renewable energy sources by 2020, think at the moment its currently 15%. Obviously this would lead to huge job creation but is it going to happen?

I also seen that Fine Gael plan to invest 5 to 6 billion in smart grid technology
to stimulate job creation, I cant find the document in question but I think its similar to this article http://corkpolitics.ie/wp/?p=5069

Do people reckon this is going to happen?

I was thinking about pursuing a career in this but if its all false promises I wouldnt bother. The renewable energy sector seems to have big potential but it doesnt appear that much is happening bar open hydro

The whole smart grid thing is based on reducing the amount of energy required, if the overall amount of energy produced is reduced and the production by renewable energy sources remains constant, the percentage of electricity generated by renewables increases.

Obviously we wont meet the 40% target by this alone, but it is cheaper than building lots of new renewable generation infrastructure so I am sure the government will be happy to squeeze a few extra by reducing demand and hope that in five years time the money will be there to meet the target by the set date. The other issue is a target set for 2020 is no concern of the present government because that is several terms away and even if they are in power at that time, they will blame previous governments for not acting.

Of course, basing it on production is a bit pointless because energy generated by wind turbines is not on demand so if a lot of wind energy is produced at times of low demand the surplus may be wasted, while if there is little wind at times of high demand thermal plants must be stepped up.