Ireland Seeks Energy Independence With Renewables Push

Ireland could become energy independent if it adopts a plan to create a series of pumped hydro storage stations along its western coast.

That’s the claim of the team behind Natural Hydro Energy (NHE), which proposes to flood and dam coastal valleys from Donegal to Kerry, creating reservoirs to provide hydroelectric power as a back up to wind energy. The idea is simple: when the wind is blowing, some of the energy is used to pump water up to a dammed valley; when the wind drops, the water is released back down into the sea inlet through turbines, which generate electricity.

The €3.45 billion project will comprise a 2GW peak power plant, including 18 onshore wind farms, a hydro station and a grid transmission connection. NHE claims that there is strong investor interest and that “detailed financial models show a strongly profitable entity capable of producing carbon-free, price-stable and secure electricity of strategic importance”.

The project also comes with the blessing of the country’s chief scientific officer, Peter Cunningham. But others are not so sure. “You would normally fill a reservoir of the size mentioned by gravity using water supplies”, says Bill Finlinson, Associate Director of environmental consultancy Entec UK. “Energy costs to fill it would exceed the output generated if all the water had to be pumped up. This raises question marks over its viability.”

But NHE’s Chief Executive Officer, Graham O’Donnell, dismissed the qualms. “We have more than sufficient energy, especially when there is surplus wind. The storage capacity is 90GWh” – enough, he claims, to keep the turbines spinning for four days non-stop.

Over the next 15 months, NHE’s environmental team will undertake detailed further hydrological and geological studies on potential reservoir locations.