At the time it was one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world, taking four years to complete. The ESB<\/a>, the first Irish semistate company, was set up in 1927 to manage the project and it electrified the nation. <\/p>\n Built by the German company Siemens-Schuckert, Ardnacrusha was responsible for 80 per cent of the State\u2019s electricity for years. <\/p>\n Ardnacrusha \u201cwas transformative, not just because it lit light bulbs\u201d, says Michael Bernard, a leading US-based futurist on climate and energy, \u201cbut because it showed what determined public investment could do. That same proportion of public spending today \u2013 about \u20ac24 billion over five years \u2013 could be deployed again, but what would be as transformative?\u201d <\/p>\n The possibilities are real, the technologies proven and the costs increasingly manageable, he says. <\/p>\n So what could \u20ac24 billion deliver in clean energy? What if Ireland spent the same money on a huge chunk of decarbonisation technology as it did a century ago on a big hydroelectric dam? Bernard did number crunching on the clean energy possibilities for Ireland: <\/p>\n In transportation, \u20ac24 billion buys \u201ca full fleet transformation\u201d. At \u20ac30,000 per electric vehicle, fully subsidised, the country could replace 800,000 petrol and diesel cars outright. With partial subsidies, 1.5 million could be converted. <\/p>\n \u201cThat would electrify nearly the entire personal transport sector,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n Shifting focus to solar, rooftop systems offer a different kind of return. \u201cIreland isn\u2019t southern Spain, but solar still works \u2013 particularly on homes and businesses using the power directly. At current costs, about \u20ac1,500 to \u20ac2,000 per kilowatt, \u20ac24 billion could fund solar arrays for nearly every viable roof in the country.\u201d <\/p>\n Grid-scale battery storage is increasingly seen as the glue that holds renewable-heavy systems together, Bernard says. Using four-hour lithium-ion systems, \u20ac24 billion could buy roughly 20 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity and 80 gigawatt-hours of storage. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s enough to meet peak national demand and to shift up to 29 terawatt-hours of electricity per year from \u2018surplus\u2019 to \u2018shortage hours\u2019. If those batteries are charged with renewables, they can prevent curtailment (cutting renewable power when there is more supply than demand in the grid) and reduce need for fossil-fuelled \u2018peaking plants\u2019 burning natural gas.\u201d <\/p>\n That level of spending on heat pumps would transform residential heating. With an average installation cost of around \u20ac12,000, it could fund two million retrofits, covering nearly all Irish homes heated with oil or gas. <\/p>\n Alternatively, it could provide district heating systems for 1.3 to 1.5 million homes in urban areas with low-carbon heat from waste energy, geothermal or centralised heat pumps. <\/p>\n For onshore wind alone, \u20ac24 billion buys around 18GW of capacity, nearly four times what Ireland has installed at present. That would generate around 49 terawatt-hours of clean electricity every year. Given Ireland\u2019s total annual electricity demand today is around 31 terawatt-hours, \u201cthis one investment could allow Ireland to electrify transport and heating while exporting surplus power.\u201d <\/p>\n Offshore wind \u2013 deploying fixed-bottom or floating turbines \u2013 is equally compelling, generating vast output of renewables with the latter opening up \u201cvast resource areas farther from shore\u201d. This would support deeper electrification and enable export of surplus power, potentially via new interconnectors to Britain and continental Europe, Bernard says. <\/p>\n Pumped hydro storage \u2013 such as the ESB\u2019s Turlough Hill power station in Co Wicklow \u2013 offers similar grid services, but with far longer durations and operational lives. Ireland\u2019s terrain, especially coastal valleys of the northwest, lends itself well to this technology, he says. The country could build five to six large pumped hydro stations \u2013 \u201cenough to provide backup for multiple days of low wind or high demand\u201d. <\/p>\n But none of it works without the grid, he says. If there were only one option, this is the one he would pursue. <\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s electricity system was never designed for three times the load, let alone millions of devices pulling power and feeding it back. A foundational upgrade to Ireland\u2019s transmission and distribution infrastructure would cost somewhere between \u20ac12 and \u20ac15 billion.\u201d <\/p>\n It would avoid hundreds of millions of tonnes of emissions by enabling electrification in heating, transport and industry. <\/p>\n Is this too good to be true? FitzGerald says envisioning a clean energy future is merited, but realising it goes beyond spending money. His preferences are: spending it on interconnectors so we can export renewables; forcing mass electrification of cars (subsiding sales rather a scrappage scheme for petrol\/diesel vehicles); retrofitting houses, starting with homes owned by local authorities; and installing windmills. <\/p>\n Focusing on enablers will assist transformation, he says, such as \u201cabolishing the [current] planning system\u201d and enhancing ability to store renewables when volumes can be 10 or 20 times more than demand. At present, he says, \u201cthere\u2019s only so much renewables you can absorb into the system\u201d. <\/p>\n Crunch issues such agriculture are about changing behaviours and adjusting incentives rather than money, he says. The best return would be from planting up to 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of forestry every year up to 2050, taking about 100 million tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere. <\/p>\n The reality is that having a budget of that scale today, \u201cyou couldn\u2019t spend it immediately, other than buying machines\u201d, FitzGerald adds. This is because of energy infrastructure delivery problems and worker shortages. <\/p>\n While there would the luxury of lots of money; there is a case for \u201csticking it in the bank and spending it slowly\u201d. <\/p>\n University College Cork<\/a> energy analyst Paul Deane agrees, saying: \u201cMany would argue we have lots of money already. I don\u2019t think you could spend it, even if you were reckless.\u201d <\/p>\n He believes Ardnacrusha was \u201cjust as much about a vision for Ireland and possibilities for the future that we never had before\u201d. <\/p>\n Critically, it should be appreciated that to decarbonise Ireland and move away from fossil fuels only requires spending an additional 1 per cent of national income \u2013 confirmed in analysis by FitzGerald and Niall McInerney of the Central Bank \u2013 which \u201cbelies the excuse that it\u2019s not doable\u201d. <\/p>\n Ireland Inc spends 10 per cent of its budget on \u201cenergy stuff\u201d: buses, petrol\/diesel, heating and so on. \u201cBy increasing that to 11 per cent, we would be able to move away from fossil fuels in coming decades,\u201d Deane says. <\/p>\n All told, Deane says, \u201cthe problem is not money. It\u2019s that we don\u2019t have an abundance of actions\u201d to move away from fossil fuels. <\/p>\n The Shannon Taskforce produced a report in 2023 which listed an abundance of actions that could transform Shannon estuary into Ireland\u2019s \u201cAtlantic green digital corridor\u201d and a hub for infinite offshore wind off the west coast. <\/p>\n Harnessing the spirit of 1925, it was launched with a large ministerial presence at Ardnacrusha led by Leo Varadkar<\/a>, then taoiseach, and Eamon Ryan<\/a>, who was minister for climate and energy. It got a ringing endorsement, but slow progress since has led to much local frustration. <\/p>\n It all comes down to investment in infrastructure, says taskforce chairman Barry O\u2019Sullivan, with Ireland only spending 51 per cent of the EU average under this heading. <\/p>\n Specifically, our grid and transport systems are unsuited for a population of 5.5 million people. <\/p>\n![\"Building](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/WMCVZHWSQVISBNJQU6VBXBX7KM.jpg\")
Building the Ardnacrusha dam was one of the first acts of the independent Irish State. Photograph: William Vandivert\/Getty <\/p>\n![\"Components](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P25FI4YST2B34G3HR6Q4WGIYAU.jpg\")
Components of heat pump systems are seen at the Bosch company’s production line in Eibelshausen, Germany. Photograph: Ronald Wittek\/EPA <\/p>\n![\"Workers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/FC4XCINHHRDTHO2KRPNPAV4RGI.JPG\")
Workers walk inside the ESB’s Turlough Hill hydroelectric facility in Co Wicklow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n![\"Forests](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/MXI7SQZ6WRZ4KMGXVMBF6HMWHA.jpg\")
Forests can soak up huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n
![\"Wind](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/B752WKRZVBCRVA3WC3KSSG2YVA.JPG\")
Wind turbines in the area around Invern in Connemara, Co Galway. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n