Misfortune will blow our way if we rely on wind turbines for almost all our electricity
Ireland, Opinions | filed June 12, 2023
Credit: Conor Skehan | Sat 10 Jun 2023 | independent.ie ~~
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The fine weather of recent weeks is starting to worry the farming community. Seen from their perspective, it marks the start of drought conditions that can play havoc with farm output and profitability.
Met Éireann has already announced that 24 out of 25 weather stations are currently observing “absolute droughts”, a period of 15 or more consecutive days with daily rainfall of less than 0.2mm. Indeed, most have already experienced between 15 and 26 days of “absolute drought”.”
Perhaps the wider community will soon share their concern, but for a very different reason. In Ireland rain droughts are almost always accompanied by long periods of little or no wind. This matters because Ireland is increasingly reliant on wind for electricity generation.
It is easy to be misled in discussions because the words “energy” and “electricity” are used interchangeably. Indeed, electricity only accounts for slightly over a fifth of Irish energy use, while the majority is almost evenly divided between heat and transport.
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2023/06/12/misfortune-will-blow-our-way-if-we-rely-on-wind-turbines-for-almost-all-our-electricity/
