Energy Price increases to come due to Government Policies
GHP.ie Comment: There is much talk about the “fines” Ireland will pay as we fail to achieve our Climate Change targets for 2020, 2030 and 2050. Both businesses and householders must stop thinking about this as some sort of national fine – any penalties Ireland has to pay will be paid by consumers in the form of increased energy taxes, in one form or other. It is important that businesses especially engage in this debate and demand action from government to take action that will minimise these fines – the closure of the peat burning power stations and the conversion of Moneypoint to natural gas would be major positive steps.
This article from the Irish Times, 15/6/18, delivers the message well….
For peat?s sake, climate change policy is crazy
Ireland?s greenhouse gas emissions are steadily rising, and the EPA projects a continuous increase for most of the next decade. As a result, not only are we certain to miss our 2020 goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we are also more likely to miss our 2030 target. Our 2050 commitment under the Paris agreement ? to largely decarbonise the economy ? is also in serious jeopardy unless the situation is rapidly redressed.
Each year, the agency publishes two sets of projections ? one on the basis of existing policies and another taking account of ?additional measures? that have been agreed during the previous year, but are not yet implemented. It was very striking that the additional measures announced last year, which the EPA numbers took into account, actually made things worse.
This is the first time that policy in a particular year has actually added to the problem of global warming rather than making a positive, though limited, contribution to reducing emissions. It should be noted, however, that the EPA?s projections do not yet factor in any positive benefits from the National Development Plan.
The key factor behind this perverse turn in climate policy, identified in the EPA numbers, was the decision to continue subsidising peat-fired electricity generation stations through to 2030. Peat is the most damaging fuel in terms of global warming, even worse than coal.
Very damaging
As well as being very damaging from an environmental point of view, generating electricity from peat is also uneconomic. This year, consumers are paying around ?3.50 on every electricity bill to subsidise the continued use of peat for power generation. This ?public service obligation? is justified on the basis that it supports employment in the midlands and energy security, albeit at the cost of much higher emissions of greenhouse gases.
The total sum involved amounts to a subsidy of more than ?100 million a year to peat generation. Currently a little under a thousand people in Bord na Móna are employed on supplying peat for electricity.
Thus the current subsidy per job involved is at least ?100,000 a year. The Bord na Móna annual report indicates that, in the year 2016/2017, its workers? average pay was ?50,000. In other words, the subsidy per job is around twice what the workers involved actually earn.
If the peat-fired power stations were closed tomorrow, and the workers involved continued to be employed on their current wages, subsidising these jobs would only cost ?50 million, not ?100 million. Electricity consumers would pay less to subsidise these jobs, and Ireland?s greenhouse gas emissions would fall substantially as a result of discontinuing this polluting fuel use.
The EPA?s figures also make clear that emissions of greenhouse gases from peat-fired electricity generation is only part of the environmental damage that will arise over the coming decade from continuing this activity.
The current policy is to substitute wood (biomass) for some of the peat used in generating electricity. By using this wood in peat-fired power stations, Ireland risks missing its obligation to develop renewable sources of heat, and may attract significant EU penalties as a result.
Wet bogland is an important carbon sink, where bogs take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and fix it in peat. This feature is lost when turf is harvested and dried, even before further carbon is released when burnt to generate power.
The new plan to keep peat-fired electricity going till 2030 is a lose-lose-lose policy. It will add significantly to Ireland?s greenhouse gas emissions, it will cost the people of Ireland a lot of money, and it will see less carbon dioxide being absorbed into our peat bogs.
This is misguided policy. We should plan for the closure by 2020 of peat-fired generation. A limited amount of the saving on subsidies could be used to develop alternative sustainable employment for those currently working in the sector. This would greatly benefit the environment, it would save electricity consumers a lot of money, and it would protect the livelihoods of those who are currently employed in the midlands harvesting peat ? a win-win-win.
