Kathriona Devereux: We need a wind of change in attitude to renewable energy

Twenty years ago, I hopped on board a boat to film the Arklow Bank Wind Farm 13km off the coast of Wicklow

It was a beautiful, sunny, windy day, ideal for filming the seven shiny and soaring turbines up close. Not so ideal for trying to stand steady on a lurching boat and deliver a piece to camera about how this offshore wind farm was one of the largest of its kind in the world and represented an exciting new chapter in Ireland’s energy journey.

Despite my seasickness, it was a moment I because, apart from the sheer engineering feat, those turbines in the middle of the sea were the tangible alternative to burning oil, coal, gas or peat. Turbines have since been symbols of hope and progress to me.

Two decades later, those turbines remain the only offshore ones in Irish waters - despite Ireland being one of the windiest countries in the world with a large maritime footprint in which to place these clean electricity generators.

Yes, in those two decades, the IMF came to town, Brexit intruded on plans, and an uninvited pandemic upended life, so there are some excuses as to why Ireland failed to seize the opportunity that offshore wind presented.

But all these years later we’ve run out of excuses and time.

Getting lots of turbines up around the countryside and out in the middle of the sea is an environmental and economic imperative.

Last week, I attended the Wind Energy Ireland Annual Conference where there was plenty of discussion about how onshore and offshore wind turbines are essential to help Ireland halve our emissions by 2030, but also are critical to ensure that businesses, hungry for clean green energy, continue to invest in Ireland.

Companies will turn their noses up at Ireland if we have a creaking electricity system powered with polluting fossil fuels.

We can’t continue to rely heavily on attracting foreign direct investment with the lure of low corporation taxes. Creating a large indigenous renewable energy industry is critical to securing Ireland’s future economic prosperity and shielding us somewhat from geopolitical upset down the road.

The incoming government agrees, and the Programme for Government contains lots of mentions of energy investment.

Launching Budget 2025, Simon Harris said no-one would stop him on the street to thank him for investing €750 million on upgrading the electricity grid. It might be a politically thankless act, but it is an economically prudent one if you appreciate that renewable electricity systems are becoming the backbone of prosperous economies.

Helping wider society to appreciate what a renewable energy-fuelled future looks like is vital.

Who thinks it’s a good idea to spend €1 million a day on imported fossil fuels to run the country?

Who believes we can keep burning oil and gas without environmental consequences?

Who agrees that paying millions, (potentially) billions, in compliance fines for not reducing our carbon emissions would be a good use of public money?

Most people would give a firm ‘Níl’ to those three questions, but here’s a trickier one for you. Who is willing to accept the construction of the infrastructure that is needed for this renewable energy transition to happen in their own backyard?

We can all agree that wind power is good in principle, but it seems lots of people don’t want to look at a turbine.

Around the country, there is strong local opposition to plans to build wind farms. Whether it’s in Gougane Barra or Connemara - people don’t want their spot in the world to be the place where the pylon goes, or the cable is laid.

A common argument is that more suitable locations are available.

I’m not saying that communities shouldn’t have the right to object to a development or that we should lob up farms without robust and intense scrutiny and environmental protections, but the blunt fact is if we are to electrify our cars, homes and industries, we need more wind farms, more solar farms, more pylons. And they have to go somewhere.

Currently, we have 400 wind farms around the country with 5GW of onshore wind capacity. It took us 31 years to build them and in the next five years we need to build another 4GW of onshore wind if we are to meet the renewable electricity targets. It is a monumental task.

Successive opinion surveys show that Irish people agree that climate change is happening, and we need to do something to stop heating the planet.

Most agree it’s a good idea for Ireland to become energy-independent and create our own source of renewable electricity.

If we are to realise those aspirations, we must, as a nation, work out better ways to reconcile our commitment and desire for renewable energy, and all the benefits it brings, with widespread objection to the very infrastructure that is needed to move us away from our fossil fuel dependence.

Better addressing of the concerns of local communities, and incentivising the acceptance of these developments, will be key.

Community Benefit Funds are a common way for wind farm developers to pay something back to local communities. Substantial funds are offered yearly to playgroups, schools and local amenities.

Some operators offer electricity discounts to households in the immediate vicinity of their new developments.

Longer term, it’s hoped that a thriving renewable energy sector in Ireland will be a significant source of employment in coastal and rural communities.

In a recent landmark High Court decision, Justice Humphreys ruled that the practice by planners of placing undue emphasis on visual impacts over the legally binding need for climate action cannot continue.

New renewable energy infrastructure will have to go somewhere, and collectively we must work together to find the fastest way to make the energy transition happen.

He said: “An immediate end to business as usual is a pre-condition for planetary survival.”

I couldn’t put it better myself.