"Green" policies are destroying this country

Most solar panels maintain reliable performance for 25-30 years. They don’t suddenly stop working at this age; instead, their efficiency gradually decreases by approximately 0.5% to 0.8% annually. After 25 years, a typical high-quality panel still operates at 80-90% of its original capacity.

https://www.okonrecycling.com/renewables-recycling/solar-panel-recycling/solar-panel-recycling-after-25-years/

italy bans ground mounted solar on agricultural land. not before time imho.

should be covering every commercial and domestic roof first

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/italy-split-possible-solar-plant-curbs-that-may-jeopardise-green-goals-2024-05-06/

Interesting stat. Got a source?

Don't worry about volcanoes, alarmists are quite happy for you to go down that rat hole, it does not challenge their belief in "the science" of catastrophic anthopogenic global warming. Instead, take a bit of time and wrap your head around this youtube presentation from Rob Louw. If you are skeptical, you need to learn why the alarmist narrative pushed across the media has gaping holes in it. For instance if we were to burn all the known reserves of oil and gas, it would only put ~200 PPM extra CO2 into the atmosphere. This would not have any measurable impact on temperature, it would be a continued boost for plant fertilization, a growing global population needs food and energy.

Alarmists rely on computer model projections that sound "sciencey", yet have no demonstrated skill at future prediction of future weather patterns and only function to propagate the scientists errors. In recent years the media have promoted weather attribution studies to drive the narrative, this is pseudoscience, a more apt description for this latest method is weather alchemy.

The European Union and British governing administrations have an obsession with reaching 1990 C02 levels. In the 35 years since then the world has changed. The EU's share in the world greenhouse gas emissions fell from 15.2% in 1990 to 6.0% in 2023. Europe has been de-industrializing, this is accelerating now that Russian gas is hard to get, and this loss of power is reflected in the outcome of the recent UN COP30 conference in Brazil. The rest of the world is not bound by EU regulations.

If you want to get an overview of the background to UN COP negotiations, from the beginning of the UN EP in the early 70's to today have a read of the following article.

The West vs. the Rest: How developing countries took control of climate negotiations and what that means for emission reduction.

Unsurprisingly however negotiators from the majority of countries – not just the Arab oil producers as some commentators suggested, but also major countries such as India, China, Indonesia and other developing countries whose economies and peoples’ welfare depend on fossil fuels – showed no interest in the idea and the COP President simply ignored it. Humiliatingly the objectors climbed down. And the words ‘fossil fuels’ were not even included in the finally agreed text.lvi

This astute comment on the failure of COP30 was made by Li Shuo of the Asia Society (described as ‘a long-time observer of climate politics’):

‘This partly reflects the power shift in the real world, the emerging power of the BASIC and BRICs countries, and the decline of the European Union’.lvii

EU states and the UK must climb down on net zero or we will face economic collapse sooner than later. The world is pushing back, the car companies are pushing back even some large unions are breaking ranks on the climate narrative.

Exclusive: Qatar's energy minister warns EU law could stop it supplying LNG to Europe

Qatar supplies between 12% and 14% of Europe's LNG since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. QatarEnergy has long-term supply contracts with Britain's Shell, France's TotalEnergies and Italy's ENI

European Union Reportedly Pushing Ban on New ICE Cars Back to 2040

'We would survive'; Labour minister mocks threat by party's largest union paymaster to sever ties

Be careful. You need to know people making that claim are flying blind on their estimates and are unable to quantify the volumes of natural sources of CO2. University of Manchester is working on sensor technology which could be useful in future when monitoring volcanoes and be able to predict eruptions. They reckon based on their monitoring the output of C02 could be 3 times the previous estimates. See Quantification of low-temperature gas emissions reveals CO2 flux underestimates at Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat

In addition back in 2023 there were more than 19,000 undersea volcanoes discovered which brings the total north of 40,000 undersea mounts. Those things create their own upwelling of minerals and gases., the effects are as yet unknown. The problem with the claims and counter claims over volcano emissions is that neither side can yet quantify the volumes of C02 output from volcanos. Our grasp of Earth’s complex systems is shakier than we’d like to admit.

Curious, an advertising campaign funded by Wind Energy Ireland under the moniker build our grid has started in the last few weeks pumping out short videos fronted by Dr. Paul Deane pushing "ruinable energy". This is at the same time the commission for regulation of utilities (CRU) has approved (Price Review 6) upping our electricity bills yet again: Your Electricity Bill is Going Up: The Massive €19bn Reason for Ireland's Latest Price Hike

“As a guide over the five years, the CRU expects the average annual increase for a typical domestic customer’s network tariff to be around €12. This may increase to as much as €21 if the high investment case is realised.”

Beginning in late 2025/early 2026, your bill will reflect:

Increased Network Charges (€1.00 - €1.75 monthly increase)

A reduced PSO Levy (to help offset grid costs)

Variable wholesale generation costs

9% VAT (Standard Rate): source

Interesting that the calls come from the left of the political spectrum. Any Irish government that pays that will collapse, most likely they will pretend and extend and try re-frame it as an "investment" and throw more subsides at the usual suspects, more ruin-able energy, more heat pump subsidies, more EV charging, grid upgrades and more green industrial strategies. Except, our government are running the country into a hard stop as Overloaded energy grid threatens to delay major transport projects including Metrolink.

The ESB told high-ranking civil servants that “significant additional electricity network reinforcements are required”.

By the end of the decade, Corrib gas is gone, the UKs energy problems are our problems. The signs are already there. Eirgrid has been running extension leads to the UK rather than build new plant for reliable generation, gas supply via the Moffat line from Scotland will come under strain in periods of high demand and due to the closure of uneconomic pipelines in the North Sea. The price of electricity will continue to climb in the UK, how much depends on future political change in the UK.

Further afield: Netherlands' renewables drive putting pressure on its power grid and Norway turning away from electricity interconnection, both are connected to the UK. In Germany: German utilities call for crisis electricity reserve following Berlin outage

European Union states, the UK and Australia are the only parts of the world still pursuing "net zero" policies. The post world war order is likely to be very different. A Russian victory would take down most of the significant leaders across the EU and energy policy plays a pivotal role in that outcome.

The ESB are trying to upgrade, but as a procurement manager told me they are small fry in the business and are fighting for scraps on a global market in terms of hardware