Bulldozing through of wind farm plans bin the Midlands now in tatters

Issued : Friday 7 February, 2014

Senator John Kelly has stated that whilst he is delighted that the British Government has decided against proceeding with the inter-governmental agreement that would have seen thousands of wind turbines erected across the midlands, he isn't one bit surprised.

"My colleague and I have consistently said that this project might not be a runner. If we had signed this agreement and put in place the necessary infrastructure, destroying the countryside in the process, there was never any guarantee that this was going to be economically viable for the British".

"This was plainly pointed out only a few weeks ago, after the publication of a Rethink Pylons commissioned report by Malcolm Brown, for BW Energy.

The report found that :

*Doubling Ireland's wind power output to 3,500 MW to meet EU 2020 targets threatens to destabilise the entire network, risking  power 'blackouts'. Connecting such a large proportion of variable wind power to a relatively small, islanded network, leads to increased  risks of uncontrollable changes in frequency of the network.

*Major otherwise unnecessary costs of €3.8bn are required to stabilise the system due to this increased wind power.

*Higher network risks can only be solved by a combination of  upgrading the transmission network (Grid 25 at €3.2bn),building another interconnector to the UK or France(0.6bn) and constraining already paid for Irish Wind Power.

*Whilst Grid 25 wind exports through an additional interconnector will become a technical necessity, the current financial case for  such exports to the UK is weak to non-existent.

*These costs will be passed onto consumers-harming industrial  competitiveness and squeezing hard pressed households. Irish consumers already pay power prices 25% above EU average,even before these €3.8bn wind power driven costs are added on.

"We are still subsidising the wind energy sector and must endure the single minded wind wind energy policy of the SEAI over green energy policy. It begs the question, 'is there now any need for Eirgrid's massive pylons plan', as public opinion seems to think not,and this must now also be cost benefit analysed. The Irish people have been told all along that the big plans for the midlands were purely for export to Britain, but we hear today that Eddie O'Connor has said it will proceed with the plans for the Irish market. These comments, quite frankly, leave me flabbergasted, but not at all surprised".