There's been an increasing buzz around green hydrogen in
Europe recently. It's seen as an exciting opportunity
for decarbonisation because there are so many potential
applications for it in addition to generating renewable
electricity.
Many people often forget that the concept of energy is made of
up of electricity, heat and transport. While Ireland has
increased its share of renewable electricity
(“RES-E”) to 33.2% in 2018, this is
still behind its 40% target for 2020. Unfortunately, the
position on renewable transport energy
(“RES-T”) and renewable heat
(“RES-H”) is even worse. Ireland
only achieved 7.5% of its 10% target and 6.5% of its 12% target for
RES-T and RES-H respectively up to 2018. With the increase in
homes being heated by heat-pumps and the increase in electric cars
on the road (plus our increasing data centres) demand on the
electricity grid is set to rise dramatically. While
interconnectors will help with this issue, curtailment,
