Energy infrastructure

It isn't just development costs. It is that there are no large sites available for Wind Farms.

Set Back must be respected. This link puts a wrinkle on that issue in that a wind farm may constrain growth in rural locations and at the edges of villages: https://cathalcrowe.ie/clarity-urgently-needed-on-rules-around-wind-turbine-setback-distance/

Ireland was a population of 8 million rural dwellers. This distribution of the population in rural areas was continued by the Land Commission who gave plots of land smaller than what are now economical for Agriculture.

Planning permission for wind farms dictates a 500 metre set back from homes. Ireland has comparatively good wind resource but you will not find good large sites(and large is needed for reduced cost of generation) for Wind Farms due to homes being dotted throughout the countryside. About the only large onshore sites left where set back is not an issue are in the boglands or on the west coast up a mountain far away from where transmission lines and the demand for electricity are. We are supposed to be saving the bogs so digging access roads destroys the bogs. Solar is "easier" to site but Ireland does not have a good solar resource to exploit.

Urban dwellers would not be familiar with the spiderweb of lanes and minor roads with residential buildings on them. You won't get 500m set back without tearing those houses down.

There is a gold rush at the moment to acquire the last few exploitable sites and the hope is that larger turbines can be exchanged in on older wind farms.

If larger turbines are exchanged in then a set back of 500 metres becomes even more important.

If the future depends on renewable electricity then Ireland will always have expensive electricity.

The contribution of Wind to the grid over the last week has been nothing short of atrocious. It seems that the Government has de facto decided to power its grid through Gas and Interconnector since Wind contributes precious little for extended periods of time. Solar and BESS will not change this.

There are ongoing problems with offshore wind projects:

https://apnews.com/article/offshore-wind-new-jersey-leading-light-pause-6c2777622c034ae03e87948503a59821?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share

https://publicaccess.bpu.state.nj.us/DocumentHandler.ashx?document_id=1363926

costs are spiralling out of control and manufacturers won't supply or increasing prices dramatically.

What will happen in Ireland? Will Auctions go unbid or will proposals be crazy expensive.

we have no indication that the incinerator is importing biomass or waste from other countries. Germany has been known to import waste for incineration from across its borders but shipping waste in to Dublin Port is obviously undesirable.

reducing waste reduction ? 🤔

Devils advocate: Reduction and Re-use should be encouraged but as the volume of waste in a country of only 5 million is low and transport costs of waste are high feeding the channel with benign packaging which is easily combustible is eminently preferable to trying to recycle waste. Greater London for example has greater population density and higher population than all of Ireland. It is more cost effective to collect and recycle there than in Ireland.

I note that manufacturers of cars have been claiming increasing recyclability rates for latest models…this does not mean that those newest models will get recycled to a greater extent than before and much will go to landfill because virgin plastic is nearly always a preferable input than recycled plastic as it is virgin clean and very cheap.

Ireland has been signed up to recycle X percent of waste whether it is practical or not. Considering the small size of the Irish waste market most pragmatic people would prefer packing where the absolute bare minimum amount non-hazardous material has been used and is there after incinerated in a CHP incinerator plant.

Wind Industry Lobbyists expect the Grid to accommodate the variable intermittent output of Wind Farms and blame someone/anyone else.

https://gript.ie/2024-worst-year-on-record-for-wind-power-lost-as-electricity-supplied-by-wind-falls/