Front line was on last night and raised a number of issues about Ireland and its renewable energy possibilities.

Eamon Ryan and Eddie hobbs were the guests, and made for quite an interesting debate. The Issues raised in the show were valid, and I hope that this might spark a wider debate. Its true that Ireland have the best wind coficent of any country in Europe, sitting out at the edge of the Atlantic has benefits, and this was highlighted, Ireland could get 40 % of  electrical power from Wind, some would say that this is too optimistic and that a more realistic 20% would be the more we would get.

Green energy in Ireland is not just about installing wind turbines everywhere, Green Energy is about having a diverse mix of Energy generation available in Ireland for the electrical grid, this must include all mixes of energy generation, wind, Solar, bio mass, hydro. I have left out nuclear power as alternative as the cost of building, decommission of a  nuclear power plant would cost Ireland too much,all the nuclear material would have to be imported, but more to the point nuclear is a finite resource too, there is only so much uranium in the ground, and it takes quite alot of energy to process. I think for ireland to go down the nuclear path would be a disaster and a massive waste of money.

Another  topic brought up was the issue of the electrical Interconnects between Ireland and the rest of Europe, so far we have 1 interconnect to England, but we would need many more, There is a plan in Europe to interconnect all countries so that supply of electrical power can be better generated and distributed, in other words we could sell electrical energy to the rest of Europe.At the moment this is not possible as it will take about 8 – 10 years for all the infrastructure to be put in place, but having all of Europe connected is no good if  local micro generation of electrical cannot get a grid connection. It was noted on the front line that getting a grid connection even when a transmisstion link is only a few kilometres away is next to impossible. This red tape will have to go  and any politics that get in the way of this would need to be side stepped, Eamon Ryan is in the best position to make the required changes, the ESB is owned by the Government and they should be able to make any changes necessary to implement this as soon as possible.

There was also a project called “Spirit of Ireland” I never head about this until last night, It’s an ambious plan to mix and match wind power to hydro power. I think the website would explain it better.

The main point of last night debate was the fact that fossil fuel is running out and we are at the end of cheap oil, the oil we get from now on will be expensive and dirty. So we do have a massive need to move ourselves away for oil, but just how we get there is another story.

The Ocean currents play a major role in keeping Ireland relatively warm during the winter.

Recent studies have shown that the ocean current is slowing down.

“National Oceanography Centre in the UK found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream from the last such measurement in 1992.”

It has become clear that global warming is having a major effect on Irish weather. If we don’t take action against this in the future, it could lead to Ireland and Europe having very different weather in years to come.

Had the plan for this road gone through the city of Kilkenny would have being effectively cut in two. As Malcolm pointed out in his brief to “An Bord Pleanala” there is more effective ways to reduce traffic.

• Public transport.
• Encouraging the use of bicycles and the provisioning of cycle lanes.
• Park and ride facilities to reduce cars that come into the town.

Also with the down turn in the economy we should be trying to reduce the amount  project which consume money that could be better spend elsewhere. I think Investing in the future is what we need, and reducing our reliance cars, if only for town trips, would be a start.

My experience with builders and contractors is that they will try and get as much money for themselves. Ripping off the taxpayer once again (The grant is almost free money to them).

Will this become another (smaller) building bubble, I’ve never seen so many builders advertising insulation contracting before. Having the tax and insurance clearings will not mean that the contractor is any good at his or her job, I suppose there will be cowboys in this business too.

While I support reducing heating bills and in turn reducing C02, I’m not 100% convinced that it will work, I hope I’m wrong!

It would be worth it for everyone of all ages to check out the events.There are kids and adult events,

from workshops to showing films on green and environmental issues.