"Green" policies are destroying this country

I wonder how green people propose to cut water usage or conserve water in a country where climate pretty much guarantee that next to nobody does have a swimming pool or need to water their lawn. :)

This is the Danish method

https://danskretursystem.dk/en/about-deposits/deposit-marks-and-amounts/

A superior system, god knows why we didn't just copy them, would've been easier, cheaper and greener for everyone involved, consumers, people, manufacturers and the environment

You most likely need some sort of an account and app on phone to use that machine but machine is far superior to what is being used here.

I am wondering how this is going to make things more green when if you are returning cans you have to wash them first as their construction does not allow them to be completely emptied without about a minute of vigorous epilepsy like shaking. If you do not wash them then your bag gets dirty and then your hands get dirty and sticky trying to feed 20-30 cans in the machine.

Did our planet saviours factured in water usage needed to wash and clean empty cans?

I am sticking sheet or two of toilett paper inside so it soak in whatever is left inside. I do not want to waste time washing each and every one of them and then shake them and then still have water in a bag.

Using hammers and chisels made from oil based components so as not to hurt their arthritic hands!

Ryan in a desperate position at this stage. They won't get the support it needs at EU Council before the elections, and after the elections they won't have a EU Parliament that will support it anyway!

The EU Green Deal is in major difficulty and UvdL's second term as CommPres hangs with it.

https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/05/in-depth-the-new-right-wing-dutch-coalition-agreement/

After months of difficult negotiations in the Netherlands, a right-wing coalition Government has been formed.

<snip>

There will also be what was termed a “big impulse” for housing construction, infrastructure and the energy transition, with the building of four nuclear power plants.

<snip>

The country will shift toward climate adaptation rather than fighting climate change.

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Not only will the Government try to soften the effects of energy bills, requirements on energy labels for houses and mandatory heat pumps will also be eliminated. An announced heightened carbon tax will be pulled back and subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles will end in 2025.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/05/10/netherlands-approves-grid-fees-for-rooftop-pv-system-owners/#:~:text=The%20competition%20regulator%20in%20the,depending%20on%20the%20system%20size.

The authority said the “terugleverkosten” fees depend on higher purchasing costs, higher imbalance costs, and the net-metering costs that the energy suppliers have to deal with when their customers own and operate rooftop PV systems.

It added that the fees are not a source of profits, as the funds collected with them compensate the lower tariffs paid to consumers who do not own PV installations.

It is not just Netherlands, Australia is planning much the same: https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/solar-panel-owners-slugged-by-ausgrid-for-generating-too-much-power-20240515-p5jdtx.html

Speaking of Australia, there is a town called Alice Springs in the center of that country and even though the headline says: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2024-04-24/report-shows-pathways-to-power-alice-springs-by-renewables-2030/103728274

"It's becoming increasingly difficult to efficiently absorb more renewables in the middle of the day when the sun is shining, without actually causing instability in the existing generation," he said.

So the only problem with solar power is that there is either too much electricity or not enough, or it disappears when the clouds come over, needs constant back up, and it can’t stabilize the frequency? And don't forget the duck curve when other generation needs to rapidly ramp up as the sun sets every day. It goes to prove yet again that even with an isolated electrical grid like remote area Alice Springs random weather-dependent electricity is non-viable. The Australians already have an experiment at King Island in the Bass strait with Tasmania with no inter-connectors to the mainland and which mainly run on diesel despite having plenty of sun and wind in the roaring forties. If unreliable generation could work anywhere, it would be there, when you can't get the proof of concept to work on an isolated grid, this is not going anywhere else, without swallowing up more subsidies and becoming more expensive and limiting for consumers.

Here is a math exercise for you

How much with it cost (provide capex and opex costs) to store 1GW of energy for 24 hours using batteries at current prices (let’s ignore for a minute that we overpay for everything on this island)

And what will be lifetime of such an installation beofre all batteries need to be replaced

It’s easy to make snarky comments but it seems extraordinary difficult for greens to actually put a cost on their ideas

I'm not a green voter at all. I hate them actually.

But the reality is it makes sense to move away where possible from fossil fuels. Batteries doesnt have to mean actual lithium batteries. For isntance, norway does it for "free" using hydro power - storing water uphill using excess solar and then releasing the potential energy as kinetic later in the day. They are so good at this that they have made an economy out of it!

Alice Springs in Australia is in the middle of a desert, they might be somewhat constrained as regards hydro, unless they want to start pumping from artesian wells. Norway is also reaching capacity constraints and may experience power deficits by 2027. The export of hydro generated power from Norway has also driven up domestic electricity prices, they once had cheap electricity, this does have an impact on domestic politics in that country.

Irelands hydro sources are tapped out, and if you think you are going to use intermittent generation to pump water into Silvermines (press release, not actually delivered) every day, well, here is what the wind turbines have been doing for the last month. It does not matter how many turbines you have, insufficient wind or too much wind means no generation. Wind capacity factors range from 20 to 40% and vary with season. Turlough hill is an economics play, it relies on surplus power at night, to manage electricity demand peaks in the morning and evening. If everyone is charging electric cars and running heat pumps overnight, the economic of running that changes because surplus generation is no longer there and has a high price.

Before you wade through all the press releases about hydrogen (not actual project delivery), that will magically turn all this intermittent generation into energy, lets see proof of concept first, all the projects are really teams harvesting grants, they fail, and move on to the next grant aided project. "Green hydrogen" is all about press releases, these are not bound by real world physics and economics.

The latest scam is carbon capture and storage (CCS) which the salesmen persuaded Eamon Ryan was the future at last UN COP meeting. That does not work either, but it's useful for companies hovering up grants and tax credits.

The people pushing net zero aim to stop people using primary energy sources and onto electricity (a secondary source). The people who produce press releases and flashy graphs are looking for 680,000 dwellings with heat pumps by 2030. Unless you have a house designed around heat pumps, most people are not interested, It is much more costly to retrofit an existing dwelling. As you say, you do have to run them all day, tune them for best efficiency and most importantly you need a well insulated and sealed property, with all the internal doors open. Heat pumps can be between 1000 KWh and 10,000 KWh, lets say 3,300 kWh for a 3 bed semi. (back of cigarette packet, that's at least 2,244,000 MWh consumed by 680,000 heat pumps). Without heat pumps, the average household uses 4,200 kWh of electricity each year and 11,000 kWh of gas.

The average mileage in Ireland in 2019 by private cars was 16,352 km. On average an electric vehicle needs 15 kWh for every 100 kilometers. The people who produce reports for government have targeted 936,000 EVs by 2030. (cigarette packet again, let's say 2,453 KWh per vehicle per year would be 2,296,008 MWh consumed)

We generate ~32,981,000 MWh and consume ~30,736,000 MWh. For the extra domestic consumption the targetted EVs and heat pump numbers need an extra 4,540,008 MWh of generation per year by 2030. Moneypoint (915MW) can produce around 7,000,000 MWh in a year. Small hydro is not going to do the job.

I think it's great that 25% of our electricity used yesterday was zero emissions.

If you were a bit of a cynic you could even come to the conclusion that eye-catching little tableau was meant to convey that it was 25% rather than the 5% the data shows it was..

With pumped storage, an energy minus game, being part of that 5% and nothing on what energy source pumped that water up the hill, then in all likliehood even the 5% is an exaggeration.

It`s either a quirk in the space-time continuim or a hefy sprinkling of magic dust because there was nothing generated here to explain that 25%.

Isn't it fantastic to see Eirgrid ditch their commitment to system security and stability all in the name of a climate action plan.

Our 2030 emissions targets are looking increasingly unrealistic. The government is determined to double down though (and yes, it's not just the Greens).

The original commitment was a reduction of 30% below 2005 emissions levels. The population is projected to be roughly 40% greater in 2030 than in 2005, and our GDP per capita 150% greater in real terms. So we are committing to have reduced emissions per capita by 50% and emissions per dollar of GDP by 72%. But given our lack of success thus far, we are faced with a 42% reduction starting from today.

How are we going to do it? Low carbon feeds in agriculture (because the Minister for Agriculture wouldn't let us kill the cows, according to Eamon Ryan). Non-existent hydrogen technology and long-duration battery storage. More interconnectors because, unlike Irish CO2 molecules, British and French ones don't cause climate change. More government-appointed taskforces tasked with the impossible. Oh, and Eamon Ryan will be attempting to scare the bejesus out of cabinet ministers next week, otherwise known as "outlining the latest scientific assessment of climate tipping points that are a particular threat [to] the country". 🙈