Energy infrastructure

Looking at this another way - any future energy project investors will judge their return on investment and project viability on this one. We've made it so hard for them to build a much needed LNG terminal in Ireland that when they weight up whether to build a wind farm in Ireland or anywhere but Ireland they'll probably build it elsewhere. All this is doing is hurting investment in renewables.

If there are so many FSRU’s in Western Europe, why do we need one? We can borrow one from elsewhere if we get really stuck.

What energy security would an FSRU of our own give us?

An FSRU doesn’t guarantee supply in a squeeze.

Anyone who is going to the trouble to blow up the gas interconnectors (hard) is also going to torpedo the FSRU (easy).

Back up the we can borrow one bit. A sweeping statement at odds with reality. All LNG resources exist because someone needs them and paid for them, they wont be leasing or lending them to anyone in the forseable future.

If you think there is a vulnerability issue, all the more reason to build one on land. If you have some nonsense come-back about torpedoing LNG tankers, I'd say WW3 would be of more immediate concern.

Anyway, the mention of FSRU's was just to highlight the nonsense that LNG is too expensive to be used, when the European hyperactivity in relation to providing new LNG infrastructure clearly makes a nonsense of that pathetic argument .

Some interesting numbers from article below:

To compare with US prices quoted in million BTU, you divide by 3.4 I believe. The € and $ are almost at parity so that part is easy.

The above then are approx $8.80 per million BTU now, increasing to $38.23 for delivery in Feb reflecting the tighter supply and higher demand in the middle of Winter.

The equivalent US prices are $6.90 for now and much the same price for delivery next Feb. So, we'll be paying $38.23 next Feb and the US will sell it for $6.90. That's a big gap and presumably why the energy review said that more LNG infrastructure in Europe will bring gas prices down overall.

Interesting spot prices in the US. Considerable variation which shows how different gas is from electricity in terms of how it is traded, but so much cheaper than Europe everywhere.

The quote I posted says otherwise. Perhaps you could quote the legislation.

If the Irish interconnector went out of action then continental demand would fall. By the end of 2027 (the earliest an LNG terminal could be established in Ireland) there will be plenty FSRUs in ireland.

a gasification terminal does not guarantee supply. It’s only a small part of the supply chain

a surplus of LNG gas will drive down EU gas prices but that has nothing to do with whether we establish a permanent LNG terminal in Ireland. An LNG terminal operator would sell their LNG into the Irish market at a price just marginally below the EU price.

What risk would a permanent LNG terminal protect us against?

These proposals are all being funded by the private sector. It's their risk then if their investment turns out to be wasted because we end up cutting gas consumption by 80%. In the case of the proposals involving FSRUs that's not even a risk as when it's no longer needed the ship will just go somewhere else. I believe Eamon Ryan said the Kinsale proposal won't happen because the pipeline to connect the FSRU is "old".

Meanwhile I see the UK is doing a big deal with the US for fracked LNG. We're going to be importing a lot more fracked gas whether we like it or not.

I'd be interested to see any specific details of the above. Shannon LNG had planning permission, but didn't go ahead due to the row over the subsidy for the interconnector, which is now resolved apparently and a new permission is going through the system now. I just took a look at that application actually and I hadn't realised that it's based on an FSRU rather than permanent onshore infrastructure.

I don't think it follows that Ireland no longer needing an FSRU means nobody would have a need for them. Conditions aren't identical everywhere in the world and we're in a pretty unique situation regarding potential for wind generation here that others aren't.

As a matter of interest where is this coming from that gas usage is going to decrease by 80%? Apparently, the National Energy and Climate Change Plan 2021-2030 has gas usage increasing.

Interesting article about LNG expansion in the UK with some figures that relate to here.

17% of UK gas is LNG

From January to September this year, of 175 shipments: 51 from Qatar and 81 from US (which one presumes are fracked gas)

So, 7.8% of UK supply is fracked US gas and that is set to increase.

Separately, 80% dependence on imports by mid 2020's in Ireland (90% by 2030) which means 6.2% of Irish gas is already fracked (or will be within a couple of years) and increasing from there in line with whatever the UK decides.

The Welsh expansion will increase its output from 15 million tonnes to 20 million. More interesting, is that new export facilities in the US including Golden Pass in Texas will increase US output by 85 million tonnes by 2025, which is way more than the UK can accept, so is highly likely to end up elsewhere in Europe.

I heard ER yesterday respond to the idea of expanding the Corrib Field to extend its expected life span. The answer was a definitive NO. Fanatics. In the meantime we'll be importing ever more US sourced fracked gas from the UK system....if we can get it. A party with 3 per cent dictating policy in the teeth of an energy crisis.

AFAIK, the proposed best green practices for excess energy are exporting, giant batteries and hydrogen generation.

Wonder if these sand batteries would ever be a viable option for us for excess energy

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221102-how-a-sand-battery-could-transform-clean-energy