'An ill wind for renewables' (wind pwer) -TCE June 2008

[eyeSpy]

SEI major interests lie in wind energy. SWS deals with the same but in a corporate manner. Many of SEI wind projects are actually handled by SWS. Hardly a neutral perspective.

As for ESB expansion it has been curtailed and slow. That company is only one example.

What are you talking about?
SEI is a statutory body. SWS is a privately owned group involved in lots of different industries.
SEI do not have wind projects. Never did and never will. THey promote research, development and deployment of renewable energy and what not.
THere was a Phoenix article a few years ago which questioned the relationship due to proximity of one of SEIs office to SWS but that was about it.

Now Brendan Halligan Chairman of SEI has been appointed to the board of Mainstream Energy.
Now that is another question. Mainstream is Eddie O Connor's new venture.

As for Arklow, that was originaly to be about 300MW but it fell through.
I dont know what happened there but the joint venture didnt work out.
No doubt money was involved.

Eddie O Connor might say 14c/kWh isnt enough for wind but others in the offshore business say it is just about doable.
For now. Costs are going up by the day. It's a vendors market and if you dont cough up you loose the turbine to Spain or Germany.
Eddie O Connor has always been good at using the media. And good luck to him I say cos without people like him we'd never get anywhere with our targets.
It is a shame the industry cant be left to the people with all the right reasons for doing it but if it was the banks wouldn't fund it.
They hold all the cards for debt financed projects. Leaving the ESB group of companies free to dip into huge cash reserves.

[carguy]

The London array which if build would be the largest offshore wind farm in thw world. However recently a major player Shell pulled its 33% share and is leaving the project. The project is now behind by more than 3 or 4 years.

The reasons cited are purely down to economics. The main problem is planning and planning delays. Onshore wind farms are 2-2.5 times cheaper to build due to less restrictive requirements in the US. But even in this market investment is relatively low key.

This has major implications from Britians renewable plans (15% of the grid). This goal would have required 33 Loondon arrays which now seems improbably optimistic.

Considering that leglislation here is behind that of britian, is Irelands wind farm game over?

Hopefully it's over

Only Green wingnuts think windmills that at best run at 30% efficincy whilst creating horrendous environmetal damage are a good place to squander limited resources.

The money needs to be invested in real sources of power i.e. nuclear or at least do what Eamonn Ryan is doing, investing in an interconnector to suck in Nuclear generated power from the UK. (But not build Eamo's useless environmentally and economically damaging joke windmills).

Wonder where he personally invests his money. What companies does he buy shares in?

[eyeSpy]

The London array which if build would be the largest offshore wind farm in thw world. However recently a major player Shell pulled its 33% share and is leaving the project. The project is now behind by more than 3 or 4 years.

The reasons cited are purely down to economics. The main problem is planning and planning delays. Onshore wind farms are 2-2.5 times cheaper to build due to less restrictive requirements in the US. But even in this market investment is relatively low key.

This has major implications from Britians renewable plans (15% of the grid). This goal would have required 33 Loondon arrays which now seems improbably optimistic.

Considering that leglislation here is behind that of britian, is Irelands wind farm game over?

Hopefully it's over

Only Green wingnuts think windmills that at best run at 30% efficincy whilst creating horrendous environmetal damage are a good place to squander limited resources.

The money needs to be invested in real sources of power i.e. nuclear or at least do what Eamonn Ryan is doing, investing in an interconnector to suck in Nuclear generated power from the UK. (But not build Eamo's useless environmentally and economically damaging joke windmills).

Wonder where he personally invests his money. What companies does he buy shares in?

anyone who thinks wind power is more damaging economically and evironmentally than nuclear power is deluded.
Nuclear operates at baseload and we have too much base load already on the system. We need more flexible plant.
Anyone who thinks we should build our own nuclear power plant is dreaming. Where, prey tell, are we going to put it?
You cant paint you house in this country without someone claiming it will kill their children. we cant build a tunnel the right size or turn on an e-voting machine so how are the public expected to trust the operators of a nuclear power plant.
So I agree, run a load of cables in the gates of Sellafield. Why have all the risk of a plant a few miles from Ireland and have non of the benefits?