What Will Happen When The Wind Forgets To Blow In Ireland?
By Paul Homewood
You will no doubt remember yesterday’s about Jillian Ambrose’s latest propaganda piece for Renewable UK in the Telegraph.
She stated:
As on the UK mainland, Northern Ireland is under pressure to attract investment in new power generation as older fossil fuel plants steadily shut down. It currently relies heavily on imports from the Republic of Ireland but is eager to reduce this dependence.
You would of course be entitled to believe that the Republic of Ireland is doing everything that Northern Ireland is not.
But you would be wrong.
These are the electricity stats for 2016. (Note – the total electricity generation figures for N Ireland, but not the split, are based on govt numbers for 2015, the latest available).
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-section-6-renewables
http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html
There is in fact very little difference in either country’s power mix. Both rely heavily on fossil fuels.
What is absolutely evident is that when the wind does not blow, both will be utterly reliant on the other’s fossil fuels.
But for some reason. Jillian forgot to mention this!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Don’t forget the Moyle and EW interconnectors. More demand on what is left of reliable generation in England, mainly.
” … as older fossil fuel plants steadily shut down.”
That doesn’t sound good.
I wonder, … does it take a lot of electricity to brew Boundary Forever Ago?
Lack of beer can lead to riots.
Ireland has the advantage of small geographical area, so has failed to be conned by academic studies that promise ever more wind power from increasing geographical diversity. The whole island is smaller than typical air pressure flat areas, and quite often their TOTAL wind power dies spectacularly.
Eirgrid, the Irish National Grid, knows how to do modelling, and they know that conventional power will, at least once per winter, be called upon to provide around 98% of the peak demand in that winter (unless by luck the lowest wind spell falls on a holiday period). The same rule applies to the UK, but you won’t hear about it from National Grid:
There are currently two 500MW interconnectors between the UK and Ireland (one to N Ireland built in 2002 and one to Eire built in 2012). Another 500MW one is planned for 2021 to connect Eire to the UK. It’s a good job that when the wind is not blowing in Ireland, it is always blowing strongly in the UK (and vice versa)! And it’s also a good job that the UK is not shutting down all its coal-fired power stations at the same time as Ireland is shutting down its old fossil-fueled power stations.
Surely you’re not suggesting that UK electricity policy will now be based on the real world?
I detect a touch of sarcasm in Mr Bratby’s post!
Keep the peat fires burning.
Not sure why, or if anything can be done about it, but all my comments are pushed straight to moderation.
Yes, sorry!
I’ve tried everything, even reset all of the settings to default, and it still happens
Is it because ‘It doesn’t add up’ is using a VPN? Just a thought.
Not the cause.