Renewables hold the key to energy security for Ireland

Tommy Cooke says farmers can play a vital role in helping Ireland reach its goals for renewable energy, but they need to see clear support from the State. He talks to Colette Sheridan
Renewables hold the key to energy security for Ireland

Co Tipperary Tommy Cooke, On Farm Pictured Wind Thurles, Grange, His Is

Kilkenny-based dairy farmer, Tommy Cooke, a former president of the ICMSA and an investor in green energy, says that from his perspective (dairy farming uses a lot of energy) and that of farmers in general, “the country is in a lot more trouble than it thinks it is regarding green energy and renewables. But we tend to move quickly when we make a decision. I hope that we are nifty enough to adjust very quickly to changes. There are huge challenges ahead with the big one in the energy area.” 

Cooke, who has been working with farmers and rural communities to develop their own community-led energy projects for over twenty years, points out that energy will only be maintained in Ireland if we get all our power from our own resources. 

“It’s the only way we’re going to get total energy security and that means more grid connections, more wind farms and more solar farms. I think there’s a gross underestimation of the demand for electricity in the next ten to fifteen years. The vast majority of the heating requirements in the country have to come out of renewable resources. The most optimal way of doing that is through heat pumps which are driven by electricity. Coming down the track, transport and our heat are going to be electrified. Where is that electricity going to come from?” 

Describing the country’s population as “growing massively with 20% of our population being immigrants, Cooke says: “I don’t have any problem with that whatsoever. But how are we to provide resources and infrastructure ahead of time? There’s conflict in areas where there’s a fight over scarce resources. My feeling is that we’re going to see a massive influx of immigration from countries in southern Europe such as Italy and Spain. It will be driven by climate change. I don’t have a problem with that as Ireland is an under-populated country. If we’re going to grow our economy, the counterpoint is that it’s going to drive our emissions up.” 

Since leaving agricultural college in 1980, even before his career in dairy farming, Cooke was interested in energy sources. 

“Maturing in the 1980s in the midst of an oil crisis, I was looking at other forms of energy. In the early days, a small number of people would have been interested in renewable energy technologies, more from an energy security point of view than an environmental one. Over the years, the emphasis has changed. Now, it’s predominantly environmentally driven. Having our own energy supply from our own country provides huge security and is the ideal situation when it’s environmentally friendly.” 

With the Irish population set to grow rapidly in coming years, so too will our emissions, Tommy warns.
With the Irish population set to grow rapidly in coming years, so too will our emissions, Tommy warns.

There has never been a barrier from farmers when it comes to alternative forms of energy, says Cooke. 

“Farmers are probably to the forefront in looking at alternative forms of income. Renewable energy can do that. It depends on how it’s done. The more common involvement of farmers in renewable energy projects is to let a piece of land to a solar farmer or a wind farm developer. I have always been an advocate of farmer-owned community-owned companies so the benefit always goes back to the company. It’s a huge disappointment to me to see the number of such farms not being owned by Irish companies. That to me is a fundamental mistake in the strategy for maximising the economic benefit of energy. If the value of it goes out of the country, it’s not too different to buying oil from the Middle East or America or wherever.” 

These days, Cooke doesn’t go around talking to farmers about renewables as much as he used to. “It has become too polarised. The anti-renewable industry is very strong with its campaigns.” 

The agenda has changed over the years.

“The original anti-wind farm movement was funded in the UK by the nuclear power industry. Twenty, thirty or forty years ago, they foresaw that renewable energy was going to eat their lunch, so to speak. And that has happened. Renewable energy has replaced the nuclear industry, in particular in Germany where they’ve stopped building nuclear power plants and they’re winding down nuclear power plants in favour of renewable technology and energy storage.” 

Cooke says there are people who are “anti-development. A lot of people don’t want any kind of development going on. Some of them are very genuine. They just don’t want to see their local environment disturbed in any way. They would say they’re in favour of technologies but not where they are.” 

The government could have solved a lot of problems if it had adopted the Danish strategy in the early days of driving community co-ops for renewable technologies, says Cooke. 

“But governments have constantly defaulted in favour of corporate involvement, with multinationals. They would rather deal with a few companies than having to deal with ordinary decent citizens involved in this area. Managing corporations is seen as easier. That comes from a heritage of the formation of the ESB when all the independent energy producers in Ireland were shut down so that the ESB could have a state monopoly. That ESB state monopoly still exists I believe at the official level. Whilst the government speaks eloquently of encouraging local development, I think the train has left the station in terms of large-scale opportunities because the barriers to entry are so high now.” 

There are “quite a few wind farms in the country at the moment. But it’s getting progressively more difficult from the grid connection point of view, the planning point of view and the environmental point of view. The risk factors for communities getting involved (in renewable energy) have gone through the roof. Planning permission is a process without end now. 

"So many multinational companies have left the country because of delays in planning. And community projects are not immune to planning objections. Anybody can object to anything in Ireland. That’s a real risk factor. When you combine that with the normal commercial risk, there is uncertainty about the market for future sales of the electricity. Communities, generally speaking, are not able to sustain that.” 

Cooke sees the same issues arising in the biogas sphere. “The new area being talked about in farming circles is bio-methane production. Gas is probably the most important energy source for large industry and dairy processors. But the problem is, it’s from a fossil fuel force. So there are Government proposals to introduce what’s called green gas, produced in an anaerobic way (without oxygen). It could be grass or silage or food waste...The idea is that you give some farms or agricultural areas big tanks of the silage or whatever material that can be broken down, producing methane which is injected to the gas system. It’s already happening in some places in Ireland.” 

But Cooke says that the government is looking at big companies coming in and setting up facilities and contracting farmers to produce the feedstock for them. “They would produce the gas for the national grid. There’s nothing wrong with that. The Germans have been doing it for the last twenty years. But the model in Ireland seems to be excluding the farmers and local community from involvement except from the point of view of using their land as the source of feedstock.” 

There is, says Cooke, a conflict of interest between communities and the national interest.

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