Status Update By Neil Justinian The current proliferation of wind farms in Ireland is not necessary for domestic consumption.

This startling fact was conclusively proven by Pat Swords an Irish chemical engineer in a rousing presentation on Sunday evening in !noc"anore #aterford to various community groups opposing $ir%rid. $ir%rid is the state&owned company intent on building pylons across the Irish countryside to support cables that will lin" wind farms to the national grid. Pat laid out facts and figures enough to shoc" the most ardent 'ine %ael supporter and shame those supporting 'ianna 'ail. In ())* John %ormley of the %reen Party the then +inister of the $nvironment in the 'ianna 'ail , %reen Party coalition government announced that Ireland would strive to ensure that -). of electricity consumed would be from renewable sources by ()(). This target of -). e/ceeded considerably both the $U target of (). and the U!0s target of 12.. #hat was startling was the complete lac" of supporting research to 3ustify this ambitious figure apparently pluc"ed out of the ether. Since then Irish electricity consumption has gone down and we are currently consuming the same amount of electricity as we did in ())2. #ith increasing power&saving measures this is li"ely to decrease even further. 4urrently Ireland has 1 5)) +# of installed capacity on our grid and has called for 5 1-2 +# in the N6$7P. 7s the wind is an erratic source of power the grid is "ept stable by the burning of conventional fossil fuels. Ironically this means that the wind farms have caused an increase in 48( emissions underlining the lie that they are 9green:. 8nce ( ))) +# have been installed Ireland will have long gone past the point at which the wind input would be beneficial given the instability it would cause on the grid with its fluctuations in transmitted power. That instability is very dangerous putting a new spin on +inister:s 6abbitte:s warning of 9lights out:. This is not new "nowledge; 7s early as 'ebruary ())- an $SBN% report <Impact of #ind Power %eneration in Ireland on the 8peration of 4onventional Plant and the $conomic Implications= warned that <The adverse effect of wind on thermal plant increases as the wind energy penetration rises. Plant operates less efficiently and with increasing volatility.= In addition if that does not sound scary enough to put this in the conte/t of the current financial crisis the Irish 7cademy of $ngineers estimates that since ())) some >? billion in total has been invested on supply&side pro3ects while appro/imately only >1 billion has been invested on demand&side improvements. #e cannot install the ne/t phase @%ate AB pro3ects without completing %rid (2 which is of fundamental importance to the wind&farm owners as they need to be connected to the grid. 7ccording to $ir%rid:s own press releases this is another billion euro pro3ect. The Irish consumer pays for this subsidised wind input inefficient power station operation and new grid connections. 7t the bottom of your $SB account there is a charge for your 9PS8 levy:. 8n an average $SB annual bill of >1()).)) you currently pay >A.25 C Dat E 1A.2. F >-.)2 per month or >-?.G) per year or -. of your bill. #hy is Ireland doing thisH To ma"e some people very rich apparently. The PS8 Ievy that you pay goes into something called the Subsidies 4urtailments and 4onstraints payments. 'rom the 1st 8ctober ()1( to A)th September ()1A this payment was appro/imately >1*G million. 7t the moment there are appro/imately 11)) to 1()) Turbines in Ireland. This eJuates to a payment of >15?" , >1GA" per Turbine @>15)" meanB. Nice money if you can get it. No wonder the investors are lining up to build wind farms all over the country. #hat does it mean for the futureH #ell if the current %rid (2 plan is completed there will be over A))) wind turbines ())) "m of cables and pylons criss&crossed across the entire country costing the ta/payer billions of euros generating power we don:t need and which will ma"e our system dangerously volatile to e/port power to $ngland despite them saying they don:t need it in order to ma"e huge profits for private wind farms.

Sounds li"e a plan.