Displaying items by tag: Ireland's Natural Resources
Looming Crisis - Now Is the Time to Tackle Gas
#CoastalNotes - In the The Irish Times, Cantillon comments that The Irish Academy of Engineering is not a body given to over-reaction or wild predictions. In fact, the organisation behaves much like the professionals in its ranks, carefully assessing problems before proposing solutions.
So when its latest report, Natural Gas Essential for Ireland’s Future Energy Security, makes it clear there are risks looming for supplies of a key fuel, policy-makers should pay attention.
The academy makes it clear that we are nearing a time when we will have to rely on the kindness of strangers for supplies of natural gas, an important fuel in this country that is responsible for half the electricity we use.
At the moment, the Corrib Field provides 60 per cent of what we use, while Kinsale adds 5 per cent. The rest comes from the North Sea via Scotland. Corrib is beginning to decline, while Kinsale is almost empty. By 2030 those pipes from Scotland's North Sea will be our only source of natural gas.
Further observations from the business column can be read here.