A Mayo View: Energy conundrum hangs worryingly over nation's future

Ireland set a new record last year for installed wind energy generation - with over 5,000 MW of onshore wind now connecting to the system.

However, it was also the worst year on record for wasted wind power, with recent research estimating the cost to consumers of this waste rose from €90 million in 2016 to €450 million last year.

The underlying problem is that the nation's electricity grid is simply not able to cope with wind farms’ produce, let alone meet future demands from offshore wind, solar generation and the electrification of our economy.

Every time a wind turbine is shut down because the grid cannot take the electricity, it means higher bills and more carbon emissions.

Interestingly, Mayo has the biggest wind farm in the country located at Oweninny.

It is against this background that Noel Cunniffe, the chief executive officer of Irish Wind Energy, has called on the government for continued investment in our energy infrastructure in order to increase grid capacity and energy storage and to publicly back proposed grid infrastructure projects.

"If we fail to support and deliver the grid, we will fail to grow our economy, put our electricity supply at risk and effectively abandon our legal climate obligations," he argued.

At a time when the Irish economy is under threat from tariffs, energy costs and global uncertainty, this issue is one which the government needs to grasp swiftly.

As Mr. Cunniffe pointed out, the North-South interconnector is the spine around which Ireland can build an electricity grid for a 21st century economy.

The interconnector is projected to cost €350 million constructing 85 miles of overhead cables, requiring 300 large pylons in the Republic and 100 in Northern Ireland.

While the challenge is significant, the reward will be a clean, affordable, energy-secure future, that supports Irish jobs and communities.

While housing and health services remain the priority political issues of the day, the escalating problems in relation to the country's electricity grid capacity are rapidly coming down the track and cannot be ignored.

Ireland’s future depends on it.