Should Ireland go nuclear?
Posted: February 17, 2010 by Cormac, Category:Sustainability
With climate change firmly on the agenda of governments around the world, many countries are looking to invest further nuclear energy as a way to reduce their carbon emissions. This begs the question: should Ireland go nuclear? This simple question can provoke extremely heated debates in Ireland. The last time Ireland considered nuclear power was in the late 1970’s. Thousands of people descended on the proposed site in Carnsore Point in Co. Wexford for week long “protest festivals”. The plans were scrapped. Yes, Chernobyl was one of the biggest human tragedies in history but there is simply no comparison between the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and a modern nuclear reactor. At the moment Ireland imports a significant amount of electricity from the UK and which has numerous nuclear power stations.
I believe Ireland needs to have a reasonable and logical debate on what our long term energy source will be. Do I believe Ireland should go nuclear? Absolutely not, but in my opinion Irish people are vehemently opposed to nuclear power for all the wrong reasons. Is there a single nuclear power station in Saudi Arabia? Unsurprisingly the answer is no. The Saudi’s sit on the world’s largest oil reserves so they have had no need for nuclear. The west coast of Ireland on the other hand has some of the best wind energy potential in the world. Ireland has roughly 2% of the EU’s land mass but about 6% of the wind energy potential. This makes Ireland one of the richest countries in the world in terms of wind energy potential per capita.
The ambitious “Spirit of Ireland” project proposes to build a massive network of wind turbines and hydro energy reservoirs along the west coast of Ireland to not only meet the energy needs of Ireland, but to also export electricity to the UK and mainland Europe. The key principle behind this project lies with the hydro energy reservoirs. These are basically large water reservoirs built on the top of hills or cliffs. The wind turbines are used to power water pumps which will pump water up to these reservoirs. When the water is released from the reservoir it flows down hill through hydro electric turbines to generate electricity for the country. The basic theory is to convert wind energy to hydro energy to electricity.
The major disadvantage of wind energy alone is its unreliability. The wind might blow when you don’t need it and might not blow when you do. The major advantage of using hydro energy reservoirs along with wind turbines is that you will always have a constant supply regardless of the weather! Wind energy alone would never be reliable enough to meet the countries needs. Currently Ireland has only one hydro energy storage reservoir facilities at Turlough Hill Co. Wicklow. Spirit of Ireland envisage building many more of these along the west coast of Ireland.
With natural resources like this why would we even consider nuclear…
For more information on these ambitious plans see http://www.spiritofireland.org/
