“In terms of renewable energy, Mr Bolger said Ireland was paying €73 for every unit of solar power, while Spain was paying just €32.”
Who would’ve thought that a country that has warm sunshine for the most of the year pay less for Solar than a country who is under cloud for large parts of the year.
Energy costs need to come down, solar is not that way we will do it in this country. We need offshore wind farms on the West Coast and plenty of them.
Another negative impact of our housing development pattern. Of course it’s going to cost more to maintain a network that needs to deliver power down every road and dirt track in the country. We have about twice a much power cabling per customer as the UK.
How is the government supposed to address this particular aspect of high delivery costs? Stopping people from building all over the place isn’t exactly popular.
The lads in the ESB will be grand.
I’d be cautious of buying into this tbh.
Basically the government are tasked with reducing energy costs for the average person and they are doing that through a direct VAT cut. A very efficient way of passing savings on to consumers.
This is the industry proposing that the government instead reduce the levies and charges imposed on them so that, presumably in “good faith”, they will pass those savings onto the consumer. Still has a cost to the state but I would bet both of my nuts that it would end up being paid out in dividends instead of going to the consumer.
It’s greed on the part of the suppliers simple as. Wind energy and solar energy production have made providing electricity cheaper than ever.
Anyone defending supplier greed can go and shite.
The organisation quoted is not exactly a neutral agenda-free commentator. Irish electricity network charges are high largely because we have added a lot of variable renewable generation widely distributed around the country, and we are investing to add a lot more at a pace ahead of many other European countries. It’s good that we are doing this because it is necessary if we are to make a fair contribution to decarbonising the global economy, but it does not come free and someone has to pay for it.
Price mechanisms provide a necessary check that investments in renewables go to the technologies and projects that best contribute to meeting our decarbonisation goals with the greatest economic efficiency. The problem with solar photovoltaic is that under Irish current conditions few technically feasible projects are much more than marginally competitive with other energy solutions to national goals. It is natural for promoters to want to rejig price mechanisms in their favour so as to make the private rate of return on solar projects more attractive to investors, but that does not automatically make it a good public policy idea to do so. They should at least have to make a much less simplistic argument than that reported today if they are to be taken seriously.
Not having nuclear is the root cause.
There’s no transparent pricing here. Government contracts guarantee a minimum price per unit for long term contracts – should be public
Hedge funds and megacorps benefit from tax breaks also.
Renewables are monetized at the same rate as fossil fuels. WTF?
All those data centres!
It’s ironic, considering all the wind / tide energy that can be harvested.
Without a government to regulate its all ~~supply and~~ demand and whatever price they can get.
Suppliers are increasing the cost of electricity that is produced by wind power and blaming external factors. Price gouging is literally unchallenged in Ireland, and always has been.
14 comments
So, just like everything else then. Great.
Can they get anything right in this country
“In terms of renewable energy, Mr Bolger said Ireland was paying €73 for every unit of solar power, while Spain was paying just €32.”
Who would’ve thought that a country that has warm sunshine for the most of the year pay less for Solar than a country who is under cloud for large parts of the year.
Energy costs need to come down, solar is not that way we will do it in this country. We need offshore wind farms on the West Coast and plenty of them.
Another negative impact of our housing development pattern. Of course it’s going to cost more to maintain a network that needs to deliver power down every road and dirt track in the country. We have about twice a much power cabling per customer as the UK.
How is the government supposed to address this particular aspect of high delivery costs? Stopping people from building all over the place isn’t exactly popular.
The lads in the ESB will be grand.
I’d be cautious of buying into this tbh.
Basically the government are tasked with reducing energy costs for the average person and they are doing that through a direct VAT cut. A very efficient way of passing savings on to consumers.
This is the industry proposing that the government instead reduce the levies and charges imposed on them so that, presumably in “good faith”, they will pass those savings onto the consumer. Still has a cost to the state but I would bet both of my nuts that it would end up being paid out in dividends instead of going to the consumer.
It’s greed on the part of the suppliers simple as. Wind energy and solar energy production have made providing electricity cheaper than ever.
Anyone defending supplier greed can go and shite.
The organisation quoted is not exactly a neutral agenda-free commentator. Irish electricity network charges are high largely because we have added a lot of variable renewable generation widely distributed around the country, and we are investing to add a lot more at a pace ahead of many other European countries. It’s good that we are doing this because it is necessary if we are to make a fair contribution to decarbonising the global economy, but it does not come free and someone has to pay for it.
Price mechanisms provide a necessary check that investments in renewables go to the technologies and projects that best contribute to meeting our decarbonisation goals with the greatest economic efficiency. The problem with solar photovoltaic is that under Irish current conditions few technically feasible projects are much more than marginally competitive with other energy solutions to national goals. It is natural for promoters to want to rejig price mechanisms in their favour so as to make the private rate of return on solar projects more attractive to investors, but that does not automatically make it a good public policy idea to do so. They should at least have to make a much less simplistic argument than that reported today if they are to be taken seriously.
Not having nuclear is the root cause.
There’s no transparent pricing here. Government contracts guarantee a minimum price per unit for long term contracts – should be public
Hedge funds and megacorps benefit from tax breaks also.
Renewables are monetized at the same rate as fossil fuels. WTF?
All those data centres!
It’s ironic, considering all the wind / tide energy that can be harvested.
Without a government to regulate its all ~~supply and~~ demand and whatever price they can get.
Suppliers are increasing the cost of electricity that is produced by wind power and blaming external factors. Price gouging is literally unchallenged in Ireland, and always has been.