Chapter 4: Economic Feasibility

4.1 Why Ireland's needs to change!

In chapter 2, we covered Ireland's reliance on importing of fossil fuels in particular oil. There are two

reasons why we need to change.

• For the environment.

• Energy security.

4.2 What about the environment?

It is important for us all to protect the environment. The long term benefits of protecting the environment

can't be underestimated. One of the biggest causes of greenhouse gases is the transport sector.

In particular the private use of cars. An example of how much a car produces can be illustrated with a

simple bit of maths.

The values we need for this example are:

• Distance traveled = 100km.

• Car type = new Opel Astra 1.6i 16v VVT Hatchback petrol.

• CO2 emissions g per km for this car = 149.

So CO2 produced is 149g/km *100km=149kg.

This may not seem like a lot but this is only one car doing a short distance but there is 1.5 millions

cars in Ireland, it all adds up.

4.3 Energy Security

Energy security is a term used between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy

consumption.The access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies but

due to the the growth of developing countries like China, India, Brazil etc and the limited oil supply. The

developing countries are oil hungry and with a limited supply of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. If there

was supply issues, there could be consequences such as.

• Political instability.

• May cause wars between countries.

• Economies may stall.

• Food shortages, its well known that food and oil prices/production are related.

With the threat of limited supply of fossil fuels and countries like Ireland exposed to price inflation and supply

of fossil fuel is not guaranteed so there is a need to protect resources and find new sources of energy like wind

energy, solar energy etc. The graph below illustrates the balance that is needed to achieve energy security.

Fig 4.1 Energy Security graph

4.4 Economic challenges

The challenges economic are fairly straight forward. There are three main challenges.

• Politics / Government

• Infrastructure

• Finance

If things are going to change it starts with the government. A lot of governments like to talk about electric

cars and green is the way to go, but there has to be genuine believe to get things moving.

The infrastructure is a major issue there is a need for investment into charge points and be able to guarantee

a stable electric supply. This will all need finance and incentives to get things moving.

Its clear that it must start with the government to finance and insure that the infrastructure is there. Particularly

as the Irish government owns the national gird and has begun researching/ developing a smart gird.

4.5 What is a smart gird?

A smart grid is a type of management system, its gathers, distributes and acts on information about the of its

suppliers and consumers in order to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics and sustainability of electricity

services.

Fig 4.2 Example of a smart grid

4.6 What is Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto protocol is an agreement in 1998 that was the first of its kind. It was an international agreement in

which the world's industrial nations agreed to reduce their emissions of six greenhouse gases, to prevent global

warning. These gas were:

• Methane (CH4)

• Carbon dioxide (CO2)

• Nitrous oxide (N2O)

• Per fluorocarbons (PFCs)

• Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

• Hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs)

It sets target for 37 industrialized countries and the EU to reduce emissions but there is notable absent of the USA

at Kyoto and Australia did not rectified till 2007. What makes the USA position more untenable is that they are the

biggest emitters of carbon dioxide.

Kyoto came into effect in early 2005 the reason for the delay was that there had to be ratified by at least 55

countries. Once ratified there was agreement to reduce about 5% over a five year. For India and China were not

obligated to reduce greenhouse gas as they were developing countries.

Kyoto was considered by some that is was a failure but others like the EU considered that it was a start or

stepping stone to start addressing the climate change problem caused by greenhouse gases.

4.7 EU policy?

In 2007, the EU proposed legislation setting the emission performance for new passenger cars. The European

parliament and the council in 2009 adopted the legislation and cornerstone of the EU's strategy to improve fuel

economy of cars and that the average emissions from new car do not exceed 120 gCO2/km.

The main elements of the legislation:

• Limit value curve:- The average car fleet registered in the EU will have CO2 emissions of 130 g/km by 2012.

• Phasing in of requirements:- By 2012, 65% of each manufacturer's newly registered must comply with the

limit curve set by legislation. This will rise to 75% in 2013, 80% in 2014 and 100% in 2015.

• Long term target:- A target of 95g/km is specified for the year 2020.

• Lower payments for excess emissions until 2018:- If a manufacturer exceeds its limit value in any year from

2012, they get fined.

Ireland is part of the EU thus this legislation has to be enforced and adopted by the Ireland government.