Wind And Wave
Lexia brings up interesting points about The Electricity Supply Board planning to close a number of its' power stations, and wonders where Ireland will get its' energy from if these stations are closed.
I remember (kinda sorta) the proposed Nuclear Power station at Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford in the 70's. My parents were heavily involved in the Anti-Nuclear movement back then, and also involved in the organisation of the Hippy Jam-Festivals/Protest Concerts of '78 and '79 ("Get To The Point" and "Back To The Point"). These may have been the last time popular opinion and government policy was swayed (for the better) by organised protest in this country.
Of course now, Carnsore point is home to one of the States' biggest wind-generated power stations, pumping out 12MW from 14 turbines. From nuclear power to wind power, hooray for poetic justice.
My point is, this country is battered by some of the strongest prevailing winds in Europe, and the West Coast is constantly hammered by the Atlantic. We couldn't be in any better position to replace ALL of our electricity generation with renewable, wind and wave-powered generators.
So why aren't we doing this? I say close the crappy, dirty old coal and gas-fired power stations as planned, and open up lovely, clean, green wind and wave-powered ones. But of course that's not going to happen, now is it?
UPDATE: Today just happens to be World Earth Day. Total coincidence, I swear.
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Comments
Matt, I totally agree with your post.
What I find very strange about this is that the founding fathers of the Irish state had more foresight in power generation than our present government. The hydroelectric station at Ardnacrusha in Limerick was an engineering marvel in it's day. Totally sustainable source of energy. That was the blooming twenties.
While it's percentage contribution has been dwarfed by the seemingly unsatiable thirst for power, this station has been operating in much the same way for 90 years. Successive governments have fudged the issue.
Real movement on the issue will only come when the economic need outweighs the Euro cost. When non-renewable energy becomes too expensive and makes our produce uncompetative on world markets.
Posted by: lexia | June 5, 2007 5:40 PM