No wind, so no power

[490808]

Use wind turbines to pump water into reservoirs so we can then use hydroelectric power?

No idea if the maths on that works as there are obviously enormous losses but I suspect with enough wind turbines there would at least be spare capacity in the early morning.

[Calahonda52]

Use wind turbines to pump water into reservoirs so we can then use hydroelectric power?

No idea if the maths on that works as there are obviously enormous losses but I suspect with enough wind turbines there would at least be spare capacity in the early morning.

Turlough hill is the only viable site.
the Chinese, as part of their belt and braces project are looking at doing something with the old Silvermines in Tipp but they cant buy enough land so as to develop a few missile silos that need to be 3-5 km apart to keep the Yanks guessing which ones are real

[490808]

Use "spare" wind energy to make hydrogen?

[Calahonda52]

Use "spare" wind energy to make hydrogen?

yep, I think they call it green or blue H
In passing, our peak demand is usually late December, after dark, and in many year this coincided with a high pressure from the Azores to Poland, we had capacity then, not now, especially with the data centres.
http://smartgriddashboard.com/#all

must ask for historical

[dawg]

For propaganda there is small scale stuff such as the battery farm in Shannon Bridge. HVDC interconnectors etc

EU seems to be determined to increase its purchase of gas from Russia...new pipeline construction ongoing...

The EU story here is no longer 'renewable' its 'zero carbon'. A fudge.

Obvious first step for this country is to turn off Facebook's DCs... everyone wins

[CelticRambler]

Obvious first step for this country is to turn off Facebook's DCs... everyone wins

This goes to the root of the problem - such a huge amount of (electrical) energy these days is wasted on non-productive, non-essential services such as the collecting, transfer and storage of crappy photos of portions of food, people acting the eejit and explosions of textual diarrhoea. Not to mention all the algorithms trawling through this sewage and serving up ads and "recommendations" inspired by same. We're still in a no-win situation - not just in Ireland - with business and personal consumers trying to salve their consciences with carbon offsets instead of just turning off.

[dawg]

Some say that the energy used by DCs even now exceeds that of aviation and shipping. With apparently no end in sight to the massive and rapid growth of DCs one has to wonder why they are being given a free pass.

On a side note, I have wondered for a long time why greenhouses are not colocated with DCs. Would this allow local production of out of season veg that otherwise comes from southern Europe ? Perhaps also some fruit such as bananas ?

[dawg]

A cutting from a recent Irish Times report on topic

I.T. Screenshot_2021-09-12 EirGrid projections ‘over-estimated’, say data centre operators.png (22.25 KiB) Viewed 2068 times

If true, the last two sentences are pretty gobsmacking