Responding to the energy crisis

The predicament facing Ireland is summed up starkly by John Young, head of policy and external relations Ireland at the energy company SSE. “The war [in Ukraine] has exposed that most countries, including Ireland, are over-reliant on fossil fuels,” says Young. “This is particularly true of gas, of which Russia is a major supplier. While in Ireland we’re less reliant on Russian gas, this shortfall and ongoing concern affects the continent at large, particularly in terms of increased price volatility.”

“At the same time we have seen first-hand the impact of the climate crisis, with extreme heat and fires across Europe this summer adding to the increasingly extreme nature of our weather. Bringing these things together we see the need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, become more energy independent and tackle the climate crisis. It’s clear why at an EU level there has been a massive push to accelerate and increase the deployment of renewable energy.”

The EU’s REPowerEU publication, released earlier this year, calls on Members States to accelerate growth of renewable energy and remove blockers to its rollout. The EU has also agreed short-term measures to address customer affordability and decrease energy use where possible.

“While these short-term measures will help manage the energy crisis, it is clean electricity infrastructure that will get us out of this crisis in the medium term and avoid future crises of this nature,” says Young.

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“Indeed, if we had more offshore wind, more renewables, more hydrogen, more batteries and other clean technologies, and greater uptake of energy efficiency measures, there would be nothing Russia or any other actor could do to disrupt our energy supplies and distort our markets,” says Young.

Ireland has had success with onshore wind, achieving its target of 40% renewable electricity by 2030. But fossil fuels still account for the majority of Ireland’s electricity needs. The Government has now set a target of 80% renewable electricity by 2030 and a halving of overall emissions.

While that is ambitious, the scale of opportunity of offshore wind will help. Ireland has one of the best wind resources in the world, with territorial waters many times larger than its land mass.

The Government has set a target of 7GW of offshore wind by 2030 and shown its determination with the completion of the Maritime Area Planning Bill, a key piece of policy needed to kick-start it.

“We will see first batch of offshore wind projects enter the planning system for the offshore wind farm next year and it is key that An Bord Pleanála is resourced and ready to progress applications quickly and the process is fair and equitable to ensure projects do not sit in the planning process for an extended time,” says Young.

There is no time to delay the transition to renewables, says Russell Smyth, head of sustainable futures at KPMG. “The energy crisis has resulted in a dramatic increase in investment appetite for renewables, with its historical benefits of cleaner and cheaper energy now supplemented with a key role in driving energy security. Tough and decisive decisions need to be taken in the upcoming Climate Action Plan and the Government must invest in appropriate resources for our key departments,” he says.

“As highlighted in EirGrid’s generation adequacy report, we have urgent and critical issues that need addressing. We should not, however, lose sight of the net-zero economy opportunities Ireland can benefit from by becoming a source of abundant renewable energy, we now need to put the right structures in place to capitalise on this for future generations.”

Ireland is already a world leader in onshore energy. As a result, “we have an incredible ecosystem built up here in Ireland already, expertise that will stand to our benefit over the next 10 years,” says Noel Cunniffe, chief executive of Wind Energy Ireland, the representative body for the Irish wind industry and promoter of the Green Tech Skillnet.

After Ireland’s pioneering offshore wind facility off Arklow, offshore wind stalled.

“The technology was still evolving at the time, it was really expensive, and then recession hit,” explains Cunniffe. “Government made the decision to focus on onshore wind at the time and deliver all the policies it needed, which was good. But we should have started back to offshore sooner. In the meantime countries such as Denmark, the UK and Netherlands have seen offshore thrive.”

Offshore is now being prioritised by government but planning delays are a concern. Decisions that should take 18 weeks “are much closer to 18 months”, says Cunniffe. “The process is five or six times longer than it should be.”

Strategic Power Projects designs, supplies and installs renewable energy systems for large energy users. Its managing director, Paul Carson, believes planning delays here undermine our ability to meet the Government’s renewable energy targets.

Planning delays also impact on a company’s ability to apply for a grid connection for projects, which can only be made in September each year.

“Businesses want renewable energy. They want to be seen to be responsible. But unfortunately, the systems, processes and policies are not bringing us anywhere close to hitting our targets by 2030,” says Carson.

“The country needs renewable energy to get away from fossil fuels, to reduce carbon emissions and to improve security of supply by diversifying. But the issue always comes back to the local community piece - getting the community to buy in and support it. There has to be a public realisation that we need these projects in the national interest.”

It should help that companies overwhelmingly see carbon reduction as fundamental to their business operations, according to a 2021 report from telecoms company Huawei. It commissioned Amárach Research to see how digital technologies could help Ireland achieve its 2030 carbon reduction targets and found that successfully deploying digital technologies could deliver up to 40% of the reduction in carbon emissions needed to meet Ireland’s 2030 targets.

“It is clear innovative digital technologies will play a central role in tackling climate change,” says Luke McDonnell, senior corporate communications manager at Huawei Ireland. “But it is only by working together that we can find and deploy the critical government, industry and society-wide digital solutions required for Ireland to meet its Climate Action Plan 2021 goals.”