Lack of political support delaying clean energy plans, says top EirGrid official

EirGrid ’s head of public engagement has delivered a sharp rebuke to politicians and “scaremongers” for failing to back electricity infrastructure essential for the country to run on clean energy. Sinéad Dooley also said developers of wind and solar projects needed to do more to secure public confidence. Dooley said lack of support had scuppered key high-voltage line projects first proposed in 2012 – Grid West, which would have transmitted wind energy from Mayo, and Grid Link, which would have boosted capacity in the south and southeast. [ Contentious North-South interconnector to run overground despite opposition Opens in new window ] “Had they been delivered, we would not be talking about grid constraints, dispatch down, flexibility and everything that goes with it,” she said.

“But it lacked at that time considerable political support. It also lacked, more importantly, community and landowner support.” Dooley said the North-South interconnector , a high-voltage line now to be built across Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, faced the same problems. “Public opposition is so ingrained in people now I suspect people are almost afraid to be seen to support it,” she said. She said in hindsight, the project should have been handled better.

“Ireland delivered two of these lines [from Moneypoint to Meath] in the 1980s that are still in existence, with no difficulty, with none of the scaremongering and none of the public backlash,” she said. These should have been used as examples to explain to people the critical need for the lines, the benefits they brought and the absence of harm to health, tourism or the economy, she added. Dooley chairs the EU Pact for Engagement, a European Commission initiative aimed at developing public acceptance for clean energy infrastructure.

She was speaking at the Cop31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, where the hosts have proposed that countries should aim collectively to increase electrification. The idea is to accelerate the switch to electricity in place of petrol and diesel for transport and in place of coal, oil and gas for heating. Electricity meets about 20 per cent of global energy needs, but countries are being encouraged to aim for 35 per cent by 2035. [ Where does the money you pay for electricity go?

Opens in new window ] Dooley said all involved in clean energy projects needed to effectively communicate their objectives, starting with State agencies and Government departments. Developers also needed to step up, she added. “People on occasion fail to understand the difference between substantive public engagement and a PR campaign,” she said. “A thick glossy PR campaign will not resolve the issues that we have at grassroots level.”

She called on developers of solar and wind farms to invest in substantial public engagement. “If everybody takes the time to explain the need for what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and how they’re doing it, that would be the most effective communication strategy.”