Irish project aims to tap coastal wind energy

A professor of applied physics at Trinity College Dublin has identified suitable locations on Ireland’s west coast that could support “hydro storage reservoirs” for safe and economical harnessing of wind energy.

Igor Shvets’ findings have enabled the roll out of a new breakthrough national energy project: Spirit of Ireland.

Today, more than 90 per cent of the electricity used in Ireland relies imported fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. With no control over the fluctuating costs of imported fuel, Ireland has the most expensive electricity in Europe.

In an effort to resolve Ireland’s energy issues, the Spirit of Ireland team has spent the past six months working intensively on Shvets’ proposal. The team aims to locate wind farms in suitable areas of Ireland to harvest wind energy.  The harvested energy would be stored in specially designed hydro reservoirs that could be instantly released as natural energy, and would be ideal for both domestic use and export.

The effort could not only secure Ireland’s energy supplies, but save up to €30 billion over 10 years on fossil fuel imports.

“We have done extensive technical and economic due diligence on this project,” Shvets said. “The technical and business case is rather simple. It is now for us to decide if we want to embark on the road of radical departure from fossil fuels and how far do we want to go. Without community support this project cannot proceed. It is up to the Irish people to decide if they want to embark on the project of this scale. The ‘Spirit of Ireland’ project needs their support and we welcome opinion and comments from the public.”