Energy infrastructure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250907#Comment_118250907

Could expound on what you mean by "Easily" and "proper resourcing"?

Well I gave one example already, but I'll give another. the Strategic Housing Developments process, the ones with 100+ houses, was set up to bypass the local councils and go straight to ABP. This took out a layer of highly detailed reviews and approvals which then fell on to ABP's shoulders. ABP did not get sufficient additional resources to cope with this additional workload, and now anything that goes through ABP is suffering huge delays.

The fix is to either ensure SHD's start with the LC's so that only appeals to those SHD's end up with ABP, or staff up ABP appropriately for the increased workload.

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250864#Comment_118250864

Not everyone hates Sweetman; the legal profession love him because he is a one-man revenue stream for both sides. Except, win or lose, it is us the taxpayers, who pay for both sides.

I am aware that Sweetman only challenges on points of law, but I am intrigued why he actively seeks out projects that did not adhere to the letter of the law. What is his motivation for doing that? I am reminded of hackers who claim that their only reason for writing malware is to expose the flaws in software and to encourage companies to write better software. They also claim there is nothing malicious or self-satisfying in it.

RandomViewer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118249411#Comment_118249411

Cutting electricity prices and setting unit rates for 5 year periods would alleviate a lot of concerns, all people can see is dirty big wind turbines and even dirtier big electric bills, ESB needs a clear out of all senior staff and most regional management as well, its basically a 1960s entity trying to operate in the 21st century

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252131#Comment_118252131

The environmental laws are there - Sweetman poking holes in applications that ignore it ensures that others do their due diligence on projects so they dont get caught up in the same delays and financial penalties. We need more sweetmans in this country not less - we would have a lot less cowboy builders in the boom time if there were more Peter Sweetman like individuals to hold people accountable to the regulations that exist.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252131#Comment_118252131

why he actively seeks out projects that did not adhere to the letter of the law.

Not sure I understand what you mean. You want him to object to proposals which follow the legal requirements?

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252267#Comment_118252267

Yes, the problem isn't Sweetman, it's the fact that our legal system works on a shoestring, causing massive delays for even straight forward cases.

RandomViewer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252911#Comment_118252911

You see straightforward cases for events that happened 3 or 4 years ago only being heard now, stuff that in a lot of cases would take 15-20 minutes to clear

Sam Russell

The weather this year has been very untypical. Looking at the rain for November for Dublin Phoenix Park, 17.6 mm vs 75.6 long term average. That is a significant difference. Now it has been much wetter in the West and North West, but then t always is. Even these stations are reporting much lower rain in November 2021. Cleary the climate is changing.

So what does this do for wind farms?

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118253109#Comment_118253109

They're looking into a fairly consistent drop in wind speeds over the last few decades, and are calling it "Global Stilling". It's ironic that our efforts to combat climate change are being hampered by climate change.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254932#Comment_118254932

With the temperature of the ice caps rising, and as the difference in temperature between the ice cap and the tropics drives the wind system, therefore it follows there is less energy in the wind system.

It has been noted by weather experts that the jet stream has changed its nature in that it used to whistle around the world at high altitude and high speed, pinned in place where it passes over the Rockies. But in recent decades, it appears to meander and loop around at much slower speed at certain times.

Now the jet stream makes a huge difference to our whether and so our climate depending on whether it is blowing to the north of us or south. I think that means there is trouble ahead.

There is a staggering amount of money going into the Irish off-shore wind industry over the next few years

https://m.independent.ie/business/irish/fexco-the-latest-player-to-target-irelands-offshore-wind-energy-sector-41109227.html

tom1ie

Does anyone know what sort of storm force and wave strength/height the floating offshore turbines are built for?

I imagine the turbines to be used for moneypoint one and two will have to stand up to some serious weather systems.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118258398#Comment_118258398

Just greenwash speculation at the expense of Irish energy users - same reason why alot of onshore windfarms are now owned by foreign vulture funds

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252911#Comment_118252911

Plus the Irish state still refuses to implement the ECJ ruling on the Derrybrein disaster with daily fines now adding up to many millions so far. Neither does ABP seem to be aware or care that many of its rulings on windfarms violate various EU Environmental directives leading to increasing numbers of JRs. The government also refuse to update planning rules on setbacks for windfarms and implement WHO guidance on such matters. Yet Eamon Ryan and his band of cabbage heads continue to cheerlead the destructive plans of Coillte and BNM in this space(the latter has turned the so called "Just Transition" into a sick joke at this stage).

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118243381#Comment_118243381

I can’t see anyone wanting to build a CCGT. Most companies around Europe and the world have taking big impairments on their Thermal plant. ESB claim they make no money in them. They simply are not being dispatched enough.

there would need to be a guaranteed revenue

bob mcbob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118258613#Comment_118258613

Found this from the US where a wind farm survived 70 mph gusts.

https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/how-do-wind-turbines-survive-severe-storms

I was looking to see if there were any turbine failures as a result of Storm Arwen last weekend (80-90 mph winds) - only 3 reported as damaged. I am sure if there were more the daily mail would have found them

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083149/Wind-turbines-cope-UK-weather-3-blown-pieces.html

A lot of the companies deploying turbines have experience of building oil rigs in the North Sea (eg Equinor) so I am sure they know how to build for the elements.

josip

I don't expect they're that difficult a structure to design for strong winds?

The blades feather, the turbine is usually a teardrop shape, so the worst part would be vortexes on the leeward side of the tower?

antoinolachtnai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118260939#Comment_118260939

There is a capacity auction. If you win the auction then you get a guaranteed payment for having the generator available. The theory is that this capacity payment should make it worthwhile. The problem is obviously the structure of this auction and the length of time you get payments for.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118262868#Comment_118262868

I’d love to see how the actual cable connection survives heavy storms and large waves as the actual structure isn’t fixed to anything.

Apogee

Kilshane Energy – a company fronted by Northern Ireland businessman Stuart Draffin – has confirmed plans for a €150m gas-fired power plant near Dublin Airport as Ireland grapples to meet surging energy demand.

[...]

Kilshane Energy entered discussions with An Bord Pleanála early last month regarding the planned 293MW power station, which it intends to build at Huntstown. An Bord Pleanála is due to make a decision regarding the proposed plant’s strategic infrastructure status by March next year. Power plants below a 300MW threshold do not fall into the strategic infrastructure development net.

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/150m-power-plant-planned-for-dublin-as-demand-soars-41112865.html

Markcheese

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118265702#Comment_118265702

Does anyone know is that open-cycle or ccgt ? Seems cheap for just shy 0f 300mw ,?

Apogee

The planned station will be located in Huntstown and the proposed project will consist of an open cycle gas turbine, designed to provide the support required by the intermittent nature of renewable generation.

https://dublinpeople.com/news/northsidewest/articles/2021/12/03/planning-application-submitted-for-e150-million-gas-fired-power-station-in-northside/

TimeToShine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118258398#Comment_118258398

We could do with less of these useless speculative finance companies and more actual energy/renewables companies coming into the market.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270806#Comment_118270806

Read it again

Sam Russell

To get a project such as off-shore wind to fruition needs finance and expertise, plus a market. It is better to have adequate funding in from the start.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118264423#Comment_118264423

I believe most, if not all of the offshore wind farms planned for the next few years here in Ireland will actually be built on shallow banks and as such fixed to the sea floor.

I suspect we will only start to see floating wind farms, once all the good bank locations are used up.

But even then, you know that most of the oil rigs in the North Sea are floating, right? This is a well understood and solved problem.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118274376#Comment_118274376

I was specifically thinking of moneypoint one and two.

But yeah I’ll have to look into that and see how the flexible connections work for a relativey small structure that is generating electricity vs a larger rig that would or wouldn’t have a grid connection? Ie would the rig not just be supplied by generators?

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118274643#Comment_118274643

Sure, but Moneypoint and the other 2 or 3 floating wind farm projects are more long term projects, post 2030. The low hanging fruit, the 5,000MW we will be building by 2030, will be achieved by a combination of more onshore + fixed bottom offshore off the East coast, in the Irish sea, near Dublin where most of the demand is.

Most likely we will only start doing floating, once all the decent fixed bottom sites are built out.

As for "relatively small structures" I think you might be missing how massive these things are. The largest offshore wind turbine is almost as tall as the Eiffel tower. 260 meters, to put that in context, our tallest building, Capital dock is just 79m and The Spire is 121m!

Sure, the shape is different, but fundamentally the physics and engineering involved really isn't any different from the North sea floating rigs we have been building very successfully for decades.

As for grid connection, I'm not sure what the big deal with that is either. They will run underwater and will largely be unimpacted by storms, etc., similar to undersea interconnectors we already have. Of course it is technically challenging, but doable.

BTW interestingly in Norway, the oil and gas platforms closer to land are actually powered by undersea power cables. Only the ones far out to sea use generators. However that is why they are constructing the new floating wind farm, Hywind Tampen, at the moment, it is being built near these platforms and it will power them in ftuure, so that they won't have to use generators anymore.

Hywind Tampen will be online next year (already mostly in place). I suspect we will learn a lot from that, years before we build our first one. If it can survive far out in the North sea, the West coast of Ireland shouldn't be any more difficult (probably easier as they would be closer to land).

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/court-challenge-brought-against-planning-permission-for-midland-s-solar-facility-1.4748266

I despair.

While I think Solar in Ireland is mostly a wheeze to milk the public purse it seems that you can't get anything approved in Ireland without a monumental struggle. No wind, no solar, no Nuclear. About the only thing you have a hope of getting approved is a small footprint gas plant in Ireland.

New green hydrogen production plant planned for Mayo

http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/1210/1266080-new-green-hydrogen-production-plant-planned-for-mayo/