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TODAY’S BUDGET WILL be very different from the one announced last year when we were in the grip of the pandemic.
Last year was the biggest budget in the history of the State, with the government extending the various Covid-19 supports over for another year.
This year’s package is €4.7 billion – with new spending accounting for €1 billion and €500 million set aside for tax measures.
The cavernous setting of the Convention Centre was the venue for last year’s budget, but politicians have now returned to Leinster House, so proceedings should be similar to other years, pre-Covid.
Both Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath are due to address TDs.
Donohoe will take to his feet first at 1pm to read his Budget speech.
McGrath will follow, with each of the ministers’ speeches due to last around 45 minutes – so we should be done by around 2.30pm or shortly thereafter.
As the main opposition party, Sinn Féin will get an hour in reply. The other opposition parties and groupings will get 45 minutes each. Speeches will be done by 8pm.
Voting on the Budget measures will get underway at 8.30pm, and is due to end by midnight.
Immediate changes are voted in tonight (such as excise or cigarette price hikes) but votes on some of the more substantive issues take place over subsequent days.
The day’s proceedings were curtailed somewhat last year due to restrictions on gatherings, and places like hotels being closed.
Much of the Budget reaction comes via press conferences and interviews in Buswells Hotel, across the road from Leinster House. Stakeholders and groups give their reaction to the announcements throughout the day, and there’s usually a sizeable encampment of TV and radio reporters in the venue.
Protests outside the Dáil are generally a feature of Budget Day, and while the scale of such demonstrations was smaller last year, it is expected there will be a return to larger numbers this year.
Speaking to reporters before Cabinet this morning, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this year’s budget was partly about ensuring there will be no “cliff edge” as Ireland emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also said packages announced today would be line with the framework outlined in the Government’s summer economic statement earlier this year.
“Finances have improved significantly in contrast to what would have been predicted, even in the summer, given the nature of the economic recovery. But that said, we do have to be prudent and we have to plan over a five-year framework,” he said.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar also told reporters that the budget would be framed around getting public finances in order, helping families with the cost of living, investing in public services, and helping businesses that are still struggling due to the pandemic.
What can we expect in the Budget speech?
No income tax increases or cuts are expected in the Budget, but Leo Varadkar has said there is a need to protect middle income earners from inflation and the rising cost of living.
This will be done by indexing tax credits and tax bands. This could involve increasing the cut-off point at which the higher rate of income tax is applied, and increasing the entry point for the USC.
The pension and welfare package will be a “big part” of the Budget, Varadkar has indicated. He said the government also wants to do something for people paying for childcare. This could see changes to the National Childcare Scheme and an increase in the universal subsidy.
One feature of today’s announcement is that the government plans to help people working from home by allowing employees to claim back 20% to 30% of their energy bills or by boosting the daily working from home allowance.
Young people are due to get reduced fares on public transport, it is understood.
There will also be free contraception rolled out for young people, as reported on last week by The Journal. This will cover the cost of fitting and removing contraception such as implants, and will also cover two consultations per year for contraception.
In terms of housing, the Help-To-Buy scheme will be extended beyond December 2021 into next year. The issue vacant sites and land hoarding by developers and the State will also be addressed in this year’s Budget.
The Housing for All investment of €4 billion will include the largest capital budget of €2.6 billion.
Funding for homeless services will be €194 million, and there will be an increase in Traveller Specific Accommodation Schemes to €18 million. There will be increased funding for housing adaptation grants from €60m to €65m and retrofitting will also increase by €20 million to €85 million.
The carbon tax will be increased by another €7.50 this year to €41 per tonne. This will push up the cost of petrol, diesel and home heating fuels. Meanwhile the government aims to protect the vulnerable from energy price hikes by increasing the fuel allowance.
There has been no pension increase in the last two years and due to the rise in the cost of living it is expected it will rise by €5. There have been calls for it to increase by €10-€15, but sources say that’s unlikely.
The justice package in the Budget will see an additional 800 gardaí committed to for 2022 by the government. There will also be a 20% increase in in the Garda Mountain Bike Unit, from 556 Gardaí deployed on mountain bikes to over 650. This follows calls for a more visible presence of the force on city streets.
It is anticipated this will be followed by further increases in the coming years, with the strengthened Mountain Bike Unit expected to be deployed across Dublin and other urban centres to support high visibility policing and increase community safety.
In addition, 400 Garda civilian staff will be recruited next year, and will help to free up more gardaí for frontline policing. It will bring the total number of Garda staff to 3,800, the highest ever number – ensuring that more gardaí can focus on core policing duties rather than administration.
It is understood that to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau, a new Community Safety Innovation Fund will be established to help fund projects to increase community safety.
Due to the successes of the Criminal Assets Bureau in seizing proceeds of crime, the assets will provide additional funding for investment in community safety projects.
The fund will be established with an initial outlay in 2020 of €2 million.
There will also be a package of €13 million to help tackle domestic, sexual and gender based violence, which is a priority for the Government and Minister Helen McEntee, who returns from maternity leave in three weeks’ time.
This will include €1 million additional funding for the Divisional Protective Services Units of An Garda Síochána. The Budget allocation will assist with the Government’s new plan to tackle domestic, sexual and gender based violence, which is to be published in the coming weeks.
In terms of the arts and entertainment, a new suite of measures will be announced tomorrow as part of a €100 million overall package to boost domestic and inbound tourism numbers and to support the sector are planned.
There will be additional supports for festivals and investment in nightlife events and activities on the back of the Night-Time Economy task force report which was recently published.
The report for Minister Catherine Martin included supporting late-night openings of creative venues; new offerings in food and entertainment; measures with vintners and others to revitalise night-life across the country.
More details are expected to be announced about the pilot basic-income guarantee for artists, which was the top recommendation in the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce report.
There have been calls for the payment to be set at €327 a week, in line with the task force recommendation, beginning in January 2022. The announcement is set to be a big element of the arts package in the Budget.
In terms of sport, the Budget will set out details of how female gaelic games players will receive the same amount of funding as their male counterparts.
On cigarettes and alcohol, it is not expected that there will be tax hike on the price of alcohol this year, but the price of cigarettes is expected to increase.
Stay with The Journal throughout the day for the latest Budget news. We’ll be liveblogging from midday and you can expect articles throughout the day on the main developments and reaction.
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Give incentives for households to install panels and forget about the big farms for the minute. If small houses are creating excess take it back in to the grid. It makes sence. I’d be happier with a little help to install one of these on my roof and see a personal return rather than my tax money subsidizing a solar farm that the electricity still costs extra
Already available through http://www.seai.ie
Exactly Sean. I’ve a feeling it’s the likes of DOB and company that will get taxpayer subsidies to get the ball rolling. When it’s making money then they get to keep it.
John ESB will not let you sell or give any excess to the grid. There in lies the problem.
John that’s not the whole picture. Seai may offer grants but the Esb hasn’t evolved enough to support micro generation. Nor does it seem to want to. Our state bodies prefer working with business. Subsidies keep industry afloat and the paperwork gets done.
Not good enough. Put the money into community energy!
ESB are closing the electricity buy back scheme, so the excess you create will go to waste.
It makes absolutely no sense.
If you don’t understand electricity it makes sense.
I could write for hours why you are wrong.
1) building millions of solar panels will release huge quantities of co2 emissions and pollution and acid lakes in China.
2) selling solar or wind power back to Grid is useless. The back up plant are already running inefficiently as it is.
3) eroi of solar is next to useless in UK. As David McKay said you would be better off without any solar or wind in UK …same pretty much applies here
Solar panels will create huge problems. Not a solution at all.
We looked into solar energy to provide hot water in our new build extension (not completed yet). SEAI gave us some idea of the price and the grants available. Several did not come back to me with a quote despite the promises and the one who did gave me a price which was roughly what SEAI told me was average for the size of my extension PLUS the grant which I could claim back. The grant should have come off the price not added it on so I could reclaim it. Good old rip off Ireland is alive and well.
I think we need to do both. The government (in common with governments across the world) already subsidises dirty energy – they now need to transfer that big time to solar energy – with the will we could have stuff they have in other European countries – eg the tops of bus shelters in bus stations all solar panels, even pathways with solar panels, every large factory or supermarket should be forced by legislation to have their entire roof full of solar panels.
They need to up the funding available for home insulation (the low hanging fruit) and also solar panels, and people need to stop blocking stuff like Dun Laoghaire Rathdown being stopped in their plan to insist all new build would be built to a ‘passive energy’ standard (ie house has an environment where more or less no heating is needed). The result will be a future-proofed country energy-wise (not dependent on a volatile Middle East), cleaner air and a reduction in asthma (we have among the highest rates in the world) and a future for our children that will still be difficult but not completely catastrophic – as we will be playing our role to avert the very worst effects of climate change.
Think about it – with solar the input (the sun) is always free and infinite – unlike oil or gas.
People should know also that if you are a low income home owner you can get your home insulated for free under the Warmer Home scheme that the Greens brought in.
“Subsidies keep industry afloat….” The idea is good but with our small population import substitution on manufacturing things like solar panels or goods already made cheap in China is a non-runner.
The government would be better off subsidising growing Irish vegetables instead of pretending that solar energy is going to save us money.
Totally there used to be incentives but they were removed. At present you can’t even sell back to the grid. It’s utterly ridiculous and short sighted.
The only thing that the Greens brought in was Carbon Tax, which cost us more to heat our homes.
A couple of weeks of sunshine and everybody thinks of solar panels, as if you could store sunshine. When it rains we think of rainwater harvesting and when it is windy we think about turbines.
There is no magic formula to store renewable energy other than to use some of this renewwable hydrostatic energy to pump water into reservoirs located in the hill and use gravity to power turbines when the water is released.back down again.
If we want reusable energy we need to start thinking about ancient Greek Archimedes.type scientific priciples of engineering and how kinetic energy was used before the invention of electricity. We obviously threw the baby out with the bath water when electricity was provided in this country.
6 12
As of 2012.
The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:
Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*
SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
Solyndra ($535 million)*
Beacon Power ($43 million)*
Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
SunPower ($1.2 billion)
First Solar ($1.46 billion)
Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
Amonix ($5.9 million)
Fisker Automotive ($529 million)
Abound Solar ($400 million)*
A123 Systems ($279 million)*
Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*
Johnson Controls ($299 million)
Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
ECOtality ($126.2 million)
Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
Range Fuels ($80 million)*
Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*
Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*
GreenVolts ($500,000)
Vestas ($50 million)
LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)
Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
Navistar ($39 million)
Satcon ($3 million)*
Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*
Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)
*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.
research provided by Michael Sandoval
We could indeed install solar panels and wind generatorsat our homes ,but then,like the attempted to do in Spain,our “government” would want to tax us for doing it , perhaps for environmental or conservation purposes??
They would say that, but it’s to keep big companies in business and the ordinary man paying for everything. We are seen as economic units, not human beings and we vote for the guys that protect big business not us.
Spain lost 2.2 real jobs for every ‘green’ one created, there’s no such thing as a free lunch and if you waste money on subsidies then this is the outcome.
Go off grid and STOP using fossil fuels then
Let us know how you get on if you can get enough energy to turn on your laptop
Imagine getting all that subsidy and going bankrupt.
Renewables should be illegal
Chris, the Green Party brought in the Warmer Homes scheme that exists to this day and has insulated the homes of thousands of low income home owners entirely for free.
You may not wish to pay carbon tax, but I am sorry to say that for the sake of our children’s future the polluter must pay.
The entire world is forging ahead with sustainable energy, and we should not get left behind. Your view is a bit out of date I am afraid. Last year, for the first time, renewables accounted for a majority of new electricity-generating capacity added around the world. The average global cost of generating electricity from solar panels fell 61 percent between 2009 and 2015. It is the way forward. If we wish to have a future for our grandchildren, renewable energy is the ONLY way forward.
Owen, you are again making up stuff about the Irish electricity system. The amount of back up plant depends on the largest plant or interconnector importing, not renewables. IMHO, industrial solar should get the same fixed price as onshore wind is getting, whilst domestic should get a 20% premium (as it can reduce the costs of network investment). Alan.
Renewables provided 63% of Portugal’s energy last year. There are great strides in technology to store solar energy. It’s a free and inexhaustible source of energy.
The idea is that the government would subsidise clean energy – not tax it!
Chris, there is little need to store energy up to the point of 50% renewables. After that a bit of investment in pumped storage will see us right. Alan.
That’s for hot water.
Let’s do both.
With the solar farms the cost of residential / commercial roof top solar in Ireland will be more expensive. As the solar farms bring economise of scale to the market. By doing all the options the consumer will pay less for solar electricity.
The UK have installed 8GW of solar in the past five years, with the same damp grey climate. It works and it’s getting cheaper by the week.
Alan, back up plant have to run inefficiently because of wind.
Not sure what your point is.
http://euanmearns.com/co2-emissions-variations-in-ccgts-used-to-balance-wind-in-ireland/
Sales of Diesel Generators expected to rise in Western Europe
http://irishenergyblog.blogspot.ie/2016/05/sales-of-diesel-generators-expected-to.html
This is because of renewables, efficient back up plant no longer viable so TSOs turning to diesel
Hi Owen, Euan’s paper seems to have a fatal flaw…it seems to assume that the Irish system is based on gas and wind. As I am sure you know, we have lots of dirty Peat and dirty coal on our grid. Wind typically displaces gas, leaving the average CO2 intensity of the remaining fleet obviously higher (as a greater proportion is Peat and coal). If you want me to review anything else, please email me. Thanks, Alan.
The 63% figure is mostly hydro-power, not solar. Solar is less than 1%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Portugal
In 2013, solar power was responsible for 0.58% of the total electricity produced. Portugal also increased its solar capacity by 25% when comparing to 2012.
A large photovoltaic power project, the Serpa solar power plant, was completed in Portugal, one of Europe’s sunniest areas.[12] The 11 megawatt plant covered 150 acres (0.61 km2) and employs 52,000 PV panels. The panels are raised 2 metres off the ground allowing grazing to continue. The plant provides enough energy for 8,000 homes and saves an estimated 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Not far from there, Moura Photovoltaic Power Station is under construction. With more than 376,000 solar modules, it will have an installed capacity of 62MWp when finished. The first stage of construction is scheduled for completion in 2008. A solar panel factory is also being built in the city of Moura, where there are plans to build a research lab.
Portugal has the second largest photovoltaic power station in the world, which was completed in December 2008. The complex, called Amareleja photovoltaic power station, covers an area of 250-hectare. The 46-megawatt solar power plant produces enough electricity for 30,000 homes and saves more than 89,383 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. Also in production since January 2007, the Serpa solar power plant with an installed capacity 11MW, covers an area of 60-hectare, produces enough energy for 8,000 homes and saves more than 30,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. These solar parks are approximately 30 km apart.
@Little Diddy – just stop. I build passive, low-energy and NZEB buildings for a living. You’re waffling. Solar subsidies have failed in UK and Germany, and here ESB cancelled the only feed in tariff there was. The key is better buildings that use less of it in the first place. And those SEAI houses you mention were not done for free: they were paid for by the taxpayer. There is no ‘free’ in energy.
Yes, but with a claw back on profits.
Subsidize Irish solar energy companies, we need incentives for our own engineers and entrepreneurs to produce home grown solar panels.
No way. Ireland is already subsidising their tax. What do they get to pay? 1%. now that’s an incentive
No way should should private enterprise be funded as there would be no return in tax and for the likes of the Denis O Brein of this world to get a slice of the action.
Energy has always been, and currently is, subsidised by every country. We currently subsidise heavily in this country dirty energy production. If it needs to be subsidised to get it going, then it is a very smart move indeed for our country to do that. We will benefit by moving into the 21st century, having energy security as a country, clean air and by not having to pay millions in fines because we breached an agreement we voluntarily signed up to in order to join with Europe and the world in tackling the prospect of catastrophic climate change for our children’s children and future generations.
Does solar need subsidy ? Every other country in the world has subsidised it surely we would be better importing it and subsiding new technology like tidal harnessing.
We don’t get enough sunshine, we would need to deploy 1000s of acres of solar panels to capture enough energy to be viable with current technology. So our energy bills would have to be increased even more, just like it was to facilitate the appalling wind farms that blight the countryside now. Bio fuel would be cheaper.
Do we really have to replicate the renewables scam here? There is enormous profit if you move in the right circles, In the UK wealthy landowner Sir Reginald Sheffield gets round £600,000 a year from wind-farm subsidies, he just happens to be Cameron’s father-in-law. I wonder who will be the big players here?
Stop lying.
Gas and oil do not receive a subsidy.
The govt gets hundreds of millions every year out of oil.
Wind is a net cost in hundreds of millions.
Greens will lie and then lie again to fool gullible uneducated people about renewable scam.
Biofuels are a scam aswell.
The use more energy than they ever generate.
Renewables are a temporary scam.
Eventually people will have to realise that nuclear is the only solution.
Always beware of people selling things that sound too good to be true.
I agree Owen, I’m just pointing out it would still be cheaper than solar. Nuclear is indeed the future, we just need to get over the hysteria surrounding it.
Not true. About 3,000 acres would supply us with 5% of our electricity needs. To put that is perspective, each year about 15,000 acres of agricultural land is permanently converted into forestry. Land availability is not an issue.
Every house in Ireland should hve solar panels to create power. The government should py for the installations nd in return the surplus energy could be directed back to the national grid to be use for industry and other services. It would cut our dependence on foreign imports and encourage companies to create jobs here.
Surplus solar power? In Ireland? Not a hope.
Use solar to power your house direct don’t expect me to buy your useless energy
Brendan we looked into it when building 2 years ago. The technology just isn’t good enough yet. Maybe in another 5-10 years they will pay off.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Brendan, just like we all paid treble the amount of car tax that other countries are paying to reduce carbon emissions and then, after we were held to ransom for owning a car that was over 1.ltr all the money we paid, €439 Million was taken out of Local Government Funds and handed in its entirety to Irish Water to squander on consultants. One good nuclear power station is what we need.
We do not need nuclear power and most of Europe is going in the opposite direction – full tilt for renewable energy. Nuclear power is viciously expensive to build and considering we have not done enough to avert some of the bad effects of climate change (there is that tricky 50-100 years’ time lag even if we stopped all emissions right now – which obviously we cannot do anyway)… considering then that we are guaranteed some pretty catastrophic and unknown climate change from what we have already emitted, could you really guarantee the safety of a nuclear power plant? If we continue not doing enough to keep global warming down, it will (as all the experts say and as seems obvious) lead to economic and social breakdown, breakdown of food production worldwide, massive migration of starving people, and conflict and wars for diminishing resources… in that situation, nuclear plants will be vulnerable to attack and they might not have anybody to look after them – an unthinkable prospect for the world. In addition, they rely on water and have to be near water, and with climate change likely drastically to affect water sources, another reason not to go nuclear. Solar energy on individual houses will be a good idea if things get really bad later in the century…
While Germany’s installed solar and wind energy may be able to get fairly close to fulfilling total electricity demand for a few minutes in rare instances that weather and demand conditions are just right, their share of total primary energy is still depressingly measly. Die Welt puts it all in true perspective:
Despite billions in subsidies, ‘renewable energies’ wind and sun covered only 3.7% of Germany’s primary energy needs last year.”
HT Pierre Gosselin.
Things are going to be tough in the next 5yrs so never mind the next century. A century from now we won’t have the same issues of a masked recurrence of centenary sad arse ness in post modernist mediocrity where we are of nostalgia and heritage and old art instead of making a new aesthetic and cultural shift. We are the beautiful past in digitally re-enhanced techni-colour cinematic spectacle and bizarre window to that period but we need the Progressive Democrates on Arts and one Fianna Fáil spokes person for the arts significance in a few major projects.. they don’t really seem to get that the vision of Ireland is something besides all those things like a new horizons of Windmills which look great in my opinion indeed but the arts seem non existent and on a large international platform of being more current and where we have technology and design for their own sake. A new vision of Ireland is a new visual representation of Ireland in something beyond drama in film which I love and I can appreciate the importance of. A new look for Europe so we can look down our nose of Europe at America. They are slightly sad ironic hippy era effort in their being consumed by Nuclear energy. Slow change transition for them now. Difficult to make up for being swamped by the amount of plants they have even with all their efforts in Wind and Solar Power. It is a very off the grid culture in some instances and it gets a bad image at times. Like people might associate some wind farm effort as cult hippy havens. We might have to high tail it out of here . 2020 is the realization or perfect vision as associated. The great fantastical reality realization, I ain’t saying lets take acid and get naked and pretend we have xray vision. We are ten years and 30yrs behind in some areas of interest to be exploited
A society can only enjoy Art with huge resources of cheap energy intensive fuel sources.
You need to read up on EROI.
http://irishenergyblog.blogspot.ie/2015/01/wind-energy-wasteful-use-of-resources.html
Otherwise, you have to go back to subsistence living with little time for art
We are not at Peak Oil, we are at Peak Stupidity
Two years is a long time in the solar industry. Look again
1 thorium nuclear plant and we have enough energy for entire country for next 50 plus years with power at 30% per my of current costs. Renewable energy in Ireland is a loss leader from.day 1 as will never stand on its own feet and a tax parasite.
Per MWatt
Thorium plants still produce U-232/U-233 which are highly dangerous, and the latter can be used to build nuclear weapons. I’d rather we hold off till clean fusion comes around, we don’t want to be stuck with a plant that has harmful byproducts in years to come.
Did you factor in the cost of storage of the radioactive waste David? Maybe we should just drop it in the Irish Sea.
Regular fission is a good option. As far as I’m aware thorium plants have not been invented yet. Fusion is decades away from commercial application. The waste from all European plants is buried in the Irish Sea already you fools in cellefield wales. The by products can be used in traveling wave reactors when they come around. Modern gen 3 reactors are ultra safe and quite expensive as a result. A combo of solar wind, an nuclear is the likely desirable scenario. ( I’m skeptical of the technology in using waves or tidal power, we’ll see). There is this hysterical fear of nuclear power. There have been three major accidents in history. Chernobyl was a gen1 Soviet glorified science experiment in which the accident was human error (modern plants are automated). The idiots decided to do an unauthorized test of the back up generators for the cooling system. So they brilliantly they switched iff the main generators and the back ups failed. What followed was not a nuclear explosion but a steam explosion ionized by radioactive particles. Fukushima I think was very early gen 2 but may be gen1 and it took an earthquake followed by a tsunami and a series of really unlikely events for the many safeties to fail.
Thorium reactors can destroy plutonium and don’t produce any which is why they fell out of favour with military-minded governments and the story of LFTR is very interesting from an engineers point of view. Thorium reactors can be tuned to control what they consume or produce.
In France they recycle 80% of their nuclear waste.
They have cheapest and cleanest electricity in Europe
@Mack
Doesn’t really matter that they destroy Plutonium seeing as Thorium reactors also have by-products that can be used in nuclear weapons. Not sure why the military minded would be against that…??
Many medical devices are radioactive enough to make dirty bombs from so lets not get hysterical about the subject. Without spending ages explaining this for the benefit of lay- people the military use of thorium reactors is NOT effective as the more conventional use of uranium in it’s various form is already in the hands of rogue states and Thorium reactors would not be their choice of weapons
Thorium reactor technology is already 80% completed and the Chinese have a timeline for 2020 for the first reactor in place to resolve all their pollution generated power,, usual scaremongering thrown out by skeptics, but people should read first before opening the fingers on the keyboard . THERE is NO weapon grade material available from a Thorium reactor IF not wanted ,, so why would we generate IT IN iRELAND ,, ???? From agreement to planning design , to begin building is a 10 year issue so plan now for Tomorrow . 1 plant in Ireland solves all and with car technology going battery power and self storage systems like TESLA in homes we are on verge of complete self automation using electricity in all facets of life so WHY do we suffer the whims of Saudi despots or large burden (non)renewable energy TAX parasitic companies where we destroy our landscape with wind-farms / extra costs infrastructure / a joke of Solar Power proposed by more idiotic subsidy seeking companies ??? Time to grow up people ,, NUCLEAR is the True future for self dependency and freedom from despots !
Malachi – good idea in principal. But we don’t have the luxury of waiting decades – or hundreds – of years for fusion to work.
No, our countryside has been destroyed enough by wind farms. Ireland would become one big industrial estate.
Let’s go back to the 19th century so.
Good idea Ulick, when where was ample opportunity to grow stuff, unlike where solar panels are installed.
@Jho Harris. Here is a thought for you. Solar panels can be placed on roofs. They don’t have to be taken huge amounts of country side. Imagine a situation where every roof had a solar panel and away of storing the electricity produced.
That’s the problem Thomas, there is no economical way of storing the energy. Until someone develops a revolutionary new way to store the energy it will always have to be subsidised by conventional energy sources. Better to fund this research instead.
Well John you’re wrong there the tesla powerwall is a very economical and efficient way of storing the energy. They are not that big and they look well. If you want to put them out of sight you could fit a few very nicely under a stairs or somewhere else out of the way. Oh and newer solar panels are very efficient they don’t even need direct sunlight which ideal for Irish weather.
From what I understand, the Tesla is too noisy to keep inside the house because of the cooling system.
I think the entire earth should ban wind turbines, solar panels and anything else that could produce renewable energy and just keeping burning every single drop of oil and coal and trees and anything else we can find to burn until there is nothing left to burn. This is obviously the most logical approach to take if we want to guarantee the survival of our species for more than 10-20 generations. Who needs wind turbines clogging up the landscape when we can just dig up the landscape and burn it instead?
Like it fizz
Yes they should be banned
They consume huge amounts of fossil fuel energy , generate huge CO2 emissions, cause acid lakes, cause untold environmental damage.
And we still have to use fossil fuels anyway just like we did before.
It’s the uneducated who push stupid stuff like renewables
Do you work for a dirty energy company? Why is every country investing heavily in renewable energy if it is so stupid and will never work? The fact is that it is working all over the world. It is not only the future, but the present, and we should not get left behind.
One problem with renewables is that they all produce less value for consumers than they cost in resources.
Yes Germany are investing heavily in coal plants, so are Poland and Holland, as is China
Despite investing 100s of billions in renewables, Europe’s CO2 emissions have gone up.
“in 2008 everybody was investing in property, we should invest more in property”
The Energy Return on Investment is so bad for wind and solar, they use alot of energy, mostly fossil fuel and release huge quantities of CO2 in a short period of time.
http://irishenergyblog.blogspot.ie/2015/01/wind-energy-wasteful-use-of-resources.html
Theres a reason oil and coal took off, their EROI was huge.
Nuclear is even better so we should be looking at that, no crap renewables that cant even replace a power station
You guys are sad – CO2 emissions are not going up because some countries are investing in renewable energy – now that makes not sense at all! Why should Ireland lag behind when it is simply NOT an option to keep burning fossil fuels – ALL of the credible scientific community the world over tells us that this will destroy a liveable planet for future generations – STOP standing in the way of what is the moral imperative of our generation.
They’re not investing : quite the opposite. Multinationals are, as grants and subsidies make a profit.
Just like water, we should’nt have to pay for energy. It’s our right – and we pay for it already anyway, in our taxes.
Pay for nothing but demand everything!! Good grief
So which is it ger? We don’t pay for water or energy, or we do pay it through tax it can’t be both??
Your tongue is in your cheek, I suspect, Ger.
Someone else pays. The cornerstone of socialism.
No room for his tongue to get to his cheek, his foot is permanently in the way.
It’s not just large companies who will benefit, I have been installing PV for 4 years both in Ireland and dozens of installs in UK of several Mw in total. We have 12-15 reasonably large projects lined up and ready to go from 50Kw to 5Mw BUT the customers won’t go ahead until the long promised government announcement is made, as it will drastically effect their price to install and payback time. Dozens of small companies in Ireland are in limbo waiting for a decision.
Solar panels are like CFL lighting, they don’t last as long as claimed nor produce the output.
Good for you – morally renewable energy is the only way to go as fossil fuels are literally destroying life on earth.
Could meet those targets a lot quicker if electric vehicles were supported or encouraged properly, instead of the half-hearted attempt at installing non-functioning and unmarked chargers around the place and putting out stupid press releases about charging more than diesel for the electricity at them, followed by retractions.
Or how about some reliable public transport, or planning offices taking into account how people will get from a to b when they permit housing estates in the middle of nowhere.
I swear this place is run by complete amatures most of the time.
Too late.
The Danes and the Dutch have already captured the market.
Irish Luddite so-called environmentalists don’t like the look of windmills.
The Danes and the Dutch love windmills.
Windmills have almost defined the landscape of those countries for centuries.
P.S.
We have the ultimate solar energy.
Almost eternally blowing winds on the west coast..
(The wind is solar energy…the wind takes energy from the sun stupid)
Comparing dainty little windmills that could barely cope with a surplus of grain to the monstrous wind turbines used to generate electricity the odd time is very naughty. Anyway the Danes are in uproar as the power from their wind factories has to be given away free to prevent the grid melting.
I know someone on the west coast with a “25kW” commercial turbine. On its best day it has produced 5kW. ….
Creat jobs, stabilise electricity bills, security of energy supply, no fines for missing 2020 targets…and when large scale batteries become affordable in 2-3 years then 24 hour seven supply…then the true transition to renewables will be underway. Bring it on
Subsidise homeowners too. And anyone that wants to generate solar electricity. Whether by reduce bills or cash once a year for it. This is a win all round situation really.
Millions have been given to wave energy research and we have yet to gain from it. There are people who live very well indeed doing energy research year after year under the guise of a company kept going by grants. I say NO to giving these people grants. Enough! Reduce the price of solar panels and their installation costs for the man in the street and let’s just get on with it. No more grants for the already fat cats.
Dirty energy production is currently massively subsidised all over the world – if we want renewable non-polluting energy that saves a liveable planet for our children (if it’s not already too late to do that) then we must invest in it – otherwise we are cutting off our nose to spike our own face.
Energy needs to be looked at, yes. And there is nothing wrong with subsidising the startup investment required, for business and individuals. As long as the funding is paid back out of profits. There are some fantastic solar ideas out there that have minimal impact on the surrounding areas. As for free energy? That’ll happen when people start to work for free. Would you?
The problem with subsidising anything in this country is that it is never thought out properly to a satisfactory conclusion…..Irish Water being the prime example.
Fantastic solar ideas require fantastic amounts of sunshine, something not available in this country. They also require fantastic amounts of money which is not sustainable in the short term.
If you want to save energy and keep fit then buy a biccycle….
How then would YOU suggest we avert irreversible catastrophic global warming and save a liveable planet for future generations – any ideas?
Little Diddy….just stop reading the BS put out by the AGW/ACC industry. Climate Change is a fact and has been since the Earth formed. Out planet heats and cools cyclically and damn all you can do to change that. It’s all about fear-mongering, control and profit for some. One day, the planet will be a barren rock. Fact. We are sitting in range of a very large thermonuclear reactor, or Sun, and it has a finite, but long, life before it goes out with a bang.
Could nationalise electricity and do it ourselves!
Sunlight in Ireland is enough to heat water through solar panels and that’s it. If you think that you will be able to live with electricity powered panels, just keep dreaming!!
Worth a watch – only 28 minutes but very damning of the Timber Frame construction built in Ireland, especially during the celtic tiger era, one would say criminal! – here is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LHGwwlC8rs
Let the industry stand for itself. Subsidise feed in tariffs for households and we will get more solar production than we need..
Wind farms and solar are the way forward. However anywhere you see wind farms alot of people object and protest.
Solar farms are coming and they will be rolled out, not a bad thing in my opinion. There is alot of roof space on major commercial properties that should be used too. People forget there are large fines coming if we don’t meet these EU targets, in excess off €650m per annum. The tax payer is going to pay one way or another so I believe that companies and households should be subsidized for generation of renewable energy, whether its roof top, farm or by any other means. After all it is an extremely expensive investment to generate 1MW of power from wind.
You need to look up EROI before giving uneducated opinions
Owen, the energy return on investment is excellent for onshore wind and OK for solar. Did you receive my analysis of your data (on CCGT gas usage in the Irish market)? What is your “educated” opinion on this? Alan.
Owen, your paper on EROI seems more fiction than fact. Nuclear is the most expensive (not the cheapest), while applying this “buffering” factor to renewables is ridiculous. The use of renewables in Ireland shows that wind can be a significant source at no/low additional cost. I prefer the metric LCOE, which shows wind, gas and coal to be competitive (with Peat, Nuclear and Offshore wind as expensive). In Ireland (RoI) from 2011 to 2013, based on CER figures, the average revenue to generators was €98 per MWh, whilst wind generators only got €82 per MWh. Alan.
End all subsidies on renewables and instead spend the billions of taxpayers money saved on research and development and set Ireland up as the leading nation in renewable energy technology! Expand our University and College sector massively in this area, instead of subsidising old technology subsidise the development of new technology – lead the way and create renewable energy that doesn’t need a subsidy to survive! ! We are doing it all Arse ways! In 10yrs we could solve world global energy problems, hugely decrease carbon emissions and everyone wins! The Green Eco Facists are actually making the problem worse with the drive to subsidise ineffective Green technology! Look at the breakthrough in Trinity and a tiny budget in making a stable Graphene – imagine if we invested heavily in renewable technology? ? Germany and Denmark invest in research and Development and reap the rewards- we have a superior environment to both for renewable energy production! ! Time to use logic!!
David, Irish onshore wind does not need a subsidy, just a fixed price. From 2011 to 2013 wind received the lowest income per unit of power produced (saving the taxpayer),. This year and next, wind should receive a higher price (because coal and gas prices are very low). The good news is that electricity prices should be low for the next couple of years. Alan.
We have the technology, the never-ending wind, rain, rolling waves, a little bit of sun, and an internet that shows very simple and affordable methods of harvesting domestic power. We should be self sufficient and paying the very minimum, if not nothing, for such services, but the governments dont like anything that they can’t capitalise on.
Wind and solar a waste of money for UK, Prof Sir David MacKay said in final interview
Solar energy, and in particular solar electricity (PV) is indeed grossly under-used in Ireland. And this is by no means due to our weather. It is due to the total lack of incentives, or in fact lack of information. Subsidies are not necessarily the best method of support, as they tend to increase prices. A realistic feed-in tariff would be better in the long run. (It existed for a small amount of installations for a limited number of years – now expired.) Loads of electricity could be produced on existing roofs; it does not necessarily mean covering green fields with solar panels. But the individual home owner is in a poor negotiating position against the electricity companies. Therefore, what it needs is a courageous feed-in law, and / or an association of small solar electricity producers. In the absence of both, I can only recommend to disconnect from the grid and do your own thing (as I did).
Wind is slack enough in the summer.. calm and breezy days are a blessing for my vision in projects but aside from my own selfish desires and ignorance of global warming to some extent, when I find it aught not effect air traffic, I think it is only a logical balance to energy plan and efficiency. Sometimes I find Aritricity are trying to make up for a deficit of summer months. Are there not dynamos magnetic bobbing weights in those giant turbines? Either way Airtricity would be silly not to avail of solar in collaborative efforts to meet energy needs or requirements. I got annually an anomaly deposit conveniently to their necessity. I am for clean renewable energy. Non renewable seemed like a dangerous term way back in school teachings. Dinosaurs bass chakra churning hippy mad rain dancers brewing up storms in ancient pagan worship of the Tyrannosorearse dance. Blowing hot air down the phone as they love taking our moola.
Unless you understand Energy Return on Investment (EROI) you shouldnt be allowed to have an opinion on Energy
Ireland is a dull grey windy country very far north. Surely solar power isn’t best suited for us. Let them build solar panels on the dry arid hillsides in southern Spain. We’ll import electricity from them in Summer. It’s windy almost all year around here. We can export our wind power.
Leave Europe that’s a better plan
Wind generation is taking a large stake of the pso levy imposed on every household & business in the country & are looking for an increase from householders from €60 per year to €80 per year to fatten developers , why not cut subsidies to these developers & distribute them to solar . We all know that in 2 years time the pso will be €160 per household . All that along with with paying so much per unit of electricity . Next Celtic tiger is seriously active at a cost to everyone , time to wake up ireland & stop blaming Esb , blame government policy ,regulator & developer . Allow the householder to Benefit from solar & not the developer !!
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