Pearse Flynn, Founder, EIH2, at City Hall, Cork. Picture: David Keane.
Green energy entrepreneur Pearse Flynn has urged the State to adopt a Covid-style emergency response to providing large-scale renewable energy infrastructure here.
Mr Flynn, whose company EI-H2 hopes to build the country’s first green hydrogen facility in Aghada in East Cork, and which has partnered with the Irish arm of Texan-headquartered energy firm Zenith Energy to explore plans for a massive green hydrogen and green ammonia facility on Whiddy Island in West Cork, said fast delivery of off-shore wind-farms and on-shore energy plants is vital, if Ireland is to capitalise on what he said could be a massive opportunity for the country.
Just days after his company and the Port of Cork signed a memorandum of understanding with the Port of Amsterdam to establish a supply chain for green hydrogen between Ireland and Europe, Mr Flynn said Ireland, with its vast wind energy potential, is part of the solution to the energy crisis, and could become an energy exporter, exporting green electricity or hydrogen, if it responds quickly.
“We have a poverty of ambition,” he told The Business on RTÉ Radio One this morning.
“Do we believe that we have an energy crisis or not?
“If you believe that it’s an energy crisis, then let’s act the same way as we acted for the pandemic.”
He said the proliferation of off-shore windfarms off the east coast of the UK and Scotland shows that they are “miles ahead of us”.
“Scotland, a country the same size as Ireland has just leased parts of its seabed for billions,” he said.
“There are companies, like Iberdrola, Shell, big balance sheet companies who want to invest in Ireland.
“We should not cut any corners, we just should move in a different way. This is a huge opportunity.”
He accepted that the planning laws and the planning system are there to protect communities and the environment, but he said the various planning agencies need to be resourced and staffed to be able to make planning decisions in a reasonable time.
He said the State should be able to tell a company that they’ll have a decision on their application, including appeals, within two years.
“That’s not taking away anybody’s rights, but that you’ll get a decision in that time – a yes or no – I’m not saying you should say yes, but just get the work done,” he said.
“With the best will in the world, if we are driven by a government which is elected every four years, we’ll make no long-term decisions.
“This is strategic infrastructure for Ireland in a crisis.
“We have the ability to benefit from the crisis, unlike other countries, because we are part of the solution.”
EI-H2 plans to invest €120m in the green hydrogen facility in Aghada while its proposed 3.2 gigawatt (GW) facility, which would operate alongside Zenith Energy’s existing Bantry Bay Terminal in Whiddy, has the potential to reduce Irish carbon emissions by 2.4 million tonnes per year – the equivalent of the carbon emissions of a quarter of all Irish homes, it has claimed.
The firms have started a year-long feasibility study on the proposed Whiddy facility before an application for planning permission is made. If given the go-ahead, they believe it could be operational by 2028.
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