|
A €500 million renewable energy storage reservoir proposed
for north Co Mayo could export 10 terawatt hours of 'clean
power' to Britain, according to its backers, providing
the equivalent of 2 per cent of Britain’s electricity requirement
by 2016, when the project is targeted for completion.
Mayo County Council has expressed support in principle for
the concept, developed by Organic
Power Ltd of Skibbereen, Co Cork, to store surplus
wind and wave energy generated as part of the county’s renewable
energy strategy.
Export would require a strategic electricity grid link between
north Mayo and Pembroke, Wales and EirGrid has offered to
conduct a pre-feasibility study on the link in advance of
a connection offer.
The proposed location for the energy storage hub is Glinsk
mountain on the north Mayo coastline and construction would
involve 200 jobs over three years, according to Organic Power
Ltd’s managing director Maurice McCarthy.
Mr McCarthy, who has been working as a consultant to the
renewable energy sector since 1999, says the project is “competitive
at €700 per kilowatt” of energy.
Glinsk was earmarked for its flat-topped location near the
sea for the proposed pumped hydro-electric storage scheme
(PHES), similar to that in Turlough Hill, Co Wicklow.
The same site was proposed almost four years ago as a compromise
location for the Corrib gas terminal, but was rejected by
Shell E&P Ireland which commissioned Arup Consulting Engineers
to review the location.
The PHES technology, proven since the 1920s as a method of
storing off-peak electricity for peak demand, works by moving
water between reservoirs at different elevations. In this
instance, the sea would provide the lower reservoir, with
sea water being pumped up a cliff face to a reservoir on the
mountain.
A similar sea water PHES has been functioning successfully
in a national park in Okinawa, Japan, developed by Japanese
company J Power, says Mr McCarthy.
The company has been in pre-planning discussions with An
Bord Pleanála in a bid to submit the project as strategic
infrastructure. The board has taken a preliminary view that
it qualifies as a strategic infrastructural development application,
but has not yet issued a determination on this.
Mayo county manager Peter Hynes told The Irish Times
that the concept would open up Mayo as a renewable energy
hub for both wind, wave and biomass.
Mayo has the highest available wind resource in Britain and
Ireland and the best wave-energy potential on the Atlantic
seaboard, according to a Marine Institute study. The State’s
ocean energy test site is off Belmullet, Co Mayo and applications
by Coillte and Bord na Móna could generate up to 2,000MW of
wind energy in the county.
The proposed high-voltage underground DC transmission cable
would involve a 500MW tap link to the State’s grid at Dublin
and would cost an estimate €1.4 billion to construct.
“Britain is under pressure to replace fossil fuel electricity
with competitive renewable electricity and has been looking
at Ireland’s potential,” Mr McCarthy says.
Marex
2016, as the project is called, could provide a minimum
of 2 per cent of Britain’s total electricity requirement by
2016 at 1,000MW, to grow to 10 per cent by 2025, he forecasts.
Organic Power Ltd has consulted with local community groups,
received the support of business and community interests and
has raised €2 million to-date. It is seeking a partnership
to provide risk equity and other elements.
It says EirGrid would greatly benefit from the ability to
draw power from Britain when required in times of low-wind
penetration. “The cable infrastructure would more than double
their ability to do this, greatly enhancing security of power
supply.”
Source - The Irish Times
|
