Seán Boyle

Ireland’s Ardnacrusha Moment, Again: A Blueprint for Full Electrification A century ago, Ireland spent 20% of its national budget on a single audacious project: the Ardnacrusha hydro dam. It lit the nation and electrified its future. Today, that same level of ambition would be worth about €24 billion. So Kevin O'Sullivan — editor at the The Irish Times, author including co-author of Supergrid Super Solution, and fellow energy obsessive — asked me: what should Ireland spend it on now? Full article: https://lnkd.in/eMhQM8gv I’ve run the numbers. Offshore and onshore wind, rooftop solar, heat pumps, grid batteries, pumped hydro, interconnectors, EV subsidies — each one could cut tens to hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO₂ over time. They all pencil out. But none of it works without the grid. That’s the answer. The grid. The ugly duckling of climate tech. It’s not flashy. No one cuts ribbons on substations. But without a modernized, digitized, reinforced electrical grid, everything else stalls. No EVs. No heat pumps. No exports. Just curtailment, constraint, and missed opportunity. So if Ireland wants another Ardnacrusha moment — one bold stroke to electrify the country again — it should build the grid that can carry it all, both within Ireland and with enormous HVDC interconnectors to bring its astounding offshore wind resources to demand centers in Europe. Developers, business people and home owners will electrify the rest if the grid is robust and resilient, and enables both markets in and supply from the rest of Europe. Ireland currently wastes about 56% of all the energy it consumes because it's not nearly electrified enough. It's time to power everything with electricity, cleanly.

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Almost 40% of wind energy generated in Northern Ireland in December 2024 went unused due to restrictions in the power grid. This level of curtailment deters investment and acts as a major constraint on achieving NI's 2030 target of 80% of grid power from renewables with the share of NI's renewable power falling from 51% in 2022 to 43.5% in 2024. Thermal storage for heat networks can help to balance the grid by converting renewable electricity that would otherwise be curtailed into heat. Denmark and the Netherlands routinely use the thermal storage systems in their heat networks to help balance the grid. Currently the UK has no operational large-scale inter-seasonal thermal storage projects. Imagine what we could do in terms of avoiding the 'dispatch down' of renewables if we could overcome the barriers to rolling out heat networks across the island or Ireland. https://lnkd.in/eJ_EZB77 Tim Cox Gerard Carlin Rónán Davison-Kernan Nicholas Cowan Jane Corderoy Andy Frew Sara Lynch Odhran Crolly Koichi Samuels Tom Elliott Stuart Cairns Matthew Surgeon

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Researching this piece about heat pumps and heat generally, I learned how dumb and wasteful it is to have so many data centres venting waste heat in the hundreds of megawatts when they could be heating Irish homes and businesses. In the race to facilitate the tech sector our political representatives have failed to act in the public interest. Data centres are the primary reason that renewables are not displacing fossil fuels. They are putting a huge strain on the grid. They are not generating significant employment. They have enormous water demands in a region that is increasingly water stressed. Aside from that, we need to embrace heat pumps across the Irish economy. https://lnkd.in/eVjR_4DC

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Good article in the Business Post discussing Irish grid and Interconnection. Seán Kelly MEP hits the nail on the head; "The solutions are clear: prioritise investment, accelerate planning, enhance #interconnection, deploy cutting-edge technologies, and reinforce supply chains. However, none of this will happen without strong political will." MaresConnect Interconnector is one such project that can make a difference but to deliver on time, it will require all authorising stakeholders to be efficient in their approval processes.

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💡 𝗩𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀: 𝗔 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗞 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘀? Dublin City Council is transforming 5,000 vacant properties into homes—a bold move that not only addresses housing shortages but also reduces embodied carbon and revitalises communities. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗞? In the UK, the opportunity is staggering: 🔹 700,000 vacant homes in England (as of October 2023), equating to 2.8% of total housing stock—the size of a city like Manchester. 🔹 250,000 long-term vacant properties could address a third of the housing crisis. 🔹 The South West has seen a 9% increase in long-term empty homes in the past year alone. 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 Reactivating dormant assets doesn’t just solve housing shortages. It: ✅ Cuts embodied carbon by avoiding new builds. ✅ Enhances social value by providing affordable homes. ✅ Revitalises neighbourhoods, driving sustainable urban regeneration. 𝗗𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻’𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗪𝗮𝗸𝗲-𝗨𝗽 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 Why wait for new developments when underutilised assets can be repurposed? The UK real estate sector has a unique chance to unlock this potential—delivering financial returns while creating sustainable impact. 𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵—𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀. #RealEstate #UrbanRegeneration #HousingCrisis #ESG #SustainableDevelopment #CircularEconomy #VacantHomes #ImpactInvesting #AssetManagement #NetZero #SocialValue #PropertyInvestment #Sustainability

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Congratulations to EirGrid Group on securing planning permission this week for the Kildare-Meath upgrade line. It is a welcome and yet not a surprising outcome, based on our research findings relating to the community engagement approach adopted and implemented. Across Europe, there are plans to upgrade and improve energy infrastructure to help cut down carbon emissions. At the same time, there's a growing push for more open and inclusive ways to handle new energy projects, bringing in a wider range of voices, especially from local communities. Within this context, we in MaREI at University College Cork investigated EirGrid's public engagement strategy in action on electricity grid infrastructure development. We followed the Kildare-Meath Grid Upgrade engagement process over the period 2021-2024, in order to understand how and to what extent do participatory practices open spaces of influence for community actors to partake in decision-making regarding electricity grid developments. The results indicate that early engagement with citizens and communities is not only feasible but also effective in delivering timely infrastructure projects related to grid development. Despite the complexities involved, such as time, resource, and operational constraints, the research demonstrates that practitioners and local stakeholders’ value early community involvement. Additionally, the study offers insights into how the innovative establishment of a community forum facilitated broader participation from the community. Within this we highlight points of influence in decision making processes, and members’ perspectives on their influence and participation. More information is available from the 'Research Brief' we published (https://lnkd.in/ezSHXi8h) and from the openly and freely available peer reviewed journal paper (https://lnkd.in/eKsDTaW6) published in Elsevier's #Energy_Research_and_Social_Sciences journal. Thanks very much to the EirGrid public engagement team members, to the external facilitator of the community forum, and in particular to the community forum members, who participated in this research. Thanks also to EirGrid Group and Research Ireland for funding this research, with additional support from UNIC (European University of Cities in Post-Industrial Transition) for the collaboration with DRIFT for transition and Erasmus University Rotterdam. UCC Research, College of Science, Engineering and Food Science at UCC., UCC College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences UCC Environmental Research Institute

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