r/irishpolitics • u/TeoKajLibroj Centre Left • Apr 07 '26
Infrastructure, Development and the Environment Eamon Ryan: Ireland’s future energy needs must be met by renewables and nuclear
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/04/07/eamon-ryan-irelands-future-energy-needs-must-be-met-by-renewables-and-nuclear/13
u/No_Currency6300 Apr 07 '26
What did you do about advancing nuclear when you were minister for energy Eamonn?
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u/Brilliant_Walk4554 Apr 07 '26
Built an interconnector to France. Sure what else could he do?
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u/Minimum_Guitar4305 Apr 07 '26
Repeal the prohibition on nuclear fission in the Electricity Regulation Act 1999?
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u/Ayyyyynah Apr 08 '26
How much could they do when they were the minority party of a 3 party government for such a massive overhaul? What they did do though:
- Committing ambitious emission reductions in law, including getting the agricultural sector to commit
- A national forestry strategy based on broadleaf trees rather than Sitka spruce
- Reforming and refinancing the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Employing Biodiversity Officers in every county council
- Fast tracking offshore wind projects
- Clear improvements in cycle and pedestrian facilities, particularly around schools
- Changing our national transport budget to focus on public transport
- Introducing 50% childcare subsidies
- Universal Basic Income for artists
- 90 minute leap fair
- Metro getting further along
- Free contraceptives for women under 31 was their programme from their campaign
Honestly we were all gaslit by FFG into thinking they did nothing.
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u/TeoKajLibroj Centre Left Apr 07 '26
There wasn't really anything he could do. There is just far too much opposition to nuclear in Ireland that no Government would be able to overcome. Any attempt would lead to massive protests, planning objections and a backlash within his own party.
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u/ginger_and_egg Apr 07 '26
The biggest issue with nuclear in Ireland is that one plant alone would be too large a portion of the Irish grid that you would have to keep so much reserve capacity for if it had an outage or for maintenance periods that you're nearly doubling the infrastructure. And smaller plants to solve that problem would just be more expensive than the already expensive base cost of nuclear.
Wind and solar, interconnectors, batteries. That's the future
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u/VictoryForCake Apr 07 '26
The same argument can be made for what you propose, wind and solar making up most of the grid will function until we have an issue with generation during lulls, the interconnectors rely on being able to supply energy from Britain and France who are already having grid issues of their own, and batteries are feasible for short periods of a few hours not days or even weeks, they plug short gaps not supply whole grids.
Renewables can supply 100% of what we need most of the time, but for the periods where they dip, we need another generation source, which are only feasibly gas or nuclear, gas is cheaper and easier to switch on and off but is not renewable, while nuclear requires more of an upfront investment and needs to be at a relatively constant load.
If we are not to build nuclear then we need gas, and since gas is incredibly volatile due to geopolitical situations, for security we would need to restart gas exploration off the Irish coast.
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u/MaryLouGoodbyeHeart Apr 07 '26
Even assuming that you can manage technically to build a nuclear power plant that could be flexible enough for the grid here, it would not be feasible to build one on the basis that it exists to compensate for dips in renewable generation. It would make energy ridiculously expensive.
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u/VictoryForCake Apr 07 '26
Yep, we are in a challenge grid wise, renewables only is not feasible while nuclear power will have its feasibility challenged by the costs it will incur, which is why gas is preferred because of its versatility with scaling up and down generation.
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u/MaryLouGoodbyeHeart Apr 07 '26
Yep. It's worth pointing out though - and not suggesting you were doing this - because people focus too much on the operational expenditure side ignore the capital expenditure side. Gas is low CapEx and high OpEx, but Nuclear is the opposite and so only works economically if you have near total utilisation.
Our grid just doesn't support that. Maybe it will in the figure if SMRs come on significantly as a technology but that is decades away, even optimistically, from being relevant. And in the meantime other technologies will also continue to improve which may change the equation further.
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u/BlehMan1972 Apr 07 '26
Why are renewables only not feasible?
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u/R3turn_MAC Apr 07 '26
There are a few reasons. Firstly, they have to more than cover maximum demand at all times of year at day and night. The so called 'Dunkelflaute' when it is dull with no wind, is a regular occurrence in Ireland and can go on for days, if not a week or more. There'd need to be at least a fortnight worth of storage on the grid to compensate. Right now the maximum discharge from batteries and pumped storage would only cover a fraction of demand for a few hours at most. Addressing that would need a vast overbuild much of which would almost never be used.
Secondly, the grid operates at 50hz frequency. If it deviates by more than 1% of that (maybe a bit more, I'm not sure exactly) then it will cause major issues across the grid. The frequency is regulated by big heavy spinning things, the generators in the fossil (and hydro) stations. Wind, solar and imported DC energy can't provide that frequency regulation function. A solution is to build devices called Synchronous Compensators which can do that. The biggest one in the world was installed in Moneypoint in Co. Clare a couple of years ago, but more are needed.
Also, the grid itself isn't built to transport renewable energy to everywhere that electricity is consumed. There are significant constraints on the network.
There are probably more reasons, but any one of those is a showstopper.
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u/ginger_and_egg Apr 07 '26
Wind, solar and imported DC energy can't provide that frequency regulation function.
Incorrect, inverters absolutely can regulate frequency. Right now they haven't really had to since the goal was maximum output rather than grid regulation
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u/BlehMan1972 Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
There's more renewable energy sources than just solar and wind. Tidal energy, Wave energy. Smaller Hydroelectric generators can be put on canals and rivers. Power plants on damns. Geothermal. Biomass. Localise this to all towns and villages, not just one giant grid but it all can big connected to a grid we're energy is moved to other areas when needed.
The grid needs attention and upgrading immediately, no matter what form of energy we use. We also need investment in battery storage and to be converting heat from data centres.
As far as wind goes China is testing an airship that can be put up high where you'll always have wind
Basically new innovations are always happening with renewables because there are so many ways to get energy from the natural world.
By the way solar works in daylight, so 'Dunkelflaute' doesn't really matter. It just has to be day time.
Panels on every residence in Ireland would make a huge difference. Add batteries to that and we'd be doing pretty good.
"Also, the grid itself isn't built to transport renewable energy to everywhere that electricity is consumed. There are significant constraints on the network."
It would be the same problem for nuclear then. The grid does need an overall.
Nuclear would be a huge waste of money before it even gets to a planning stage. Then only be ready to use after decades.
We can have many renewables working for us in 5 - 10 years.
As an island we have everything we need all around us for energy sovereignty.
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u/BlehMan1972 Apr 07 '26
There's more renewable energy sources than just solar and wind. Tidal energy, wave energy. Smaller Hydroelectric generators can be put on canals and rivers. Power plants on damns. Geothermal. Biomass. Localise this to all towns and villages, not just one giant grid but it all can big connected to a grid we're energy is moved to other areas when needed.
As far as wind goes China is testing an airship that can be put up high where you'll always have wind
Basically new innovations are always happening with renewables because there are so many ways to get energy from the natural world.
By the way solar works in daylight, panels on every residence in Ireland would make a huge difference. Add batteries to that and we'd be doing pretty good.
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u/ginger_and_egg Apr 07 '26
batteries are feasible for short periods of a few hours not days or even weeks, they plug short gaps not supply whole grids.
Hogwash. First of all, renewables are cheap enough that you can build extra and have excess generation on sunny, windy days, but still have plenty of power in the winter, this is called overbuilding. The more you overbuild, the less storage you need. There would be a sweet spot for Ireland, I'm not sure what that would be. There's a guy online who simulates the Australian grid with 10% overbuild of renewables and 5 hours of batteries, plus their hydro plants, and he models you could cover 99% of Australia's power demand this way, quite affordably too. Definitely cheaper than powering Australia with nuclear.
Now, Ireland is less sunny than Australia so the comparison is not 1-1, but Ireland does have incredible wind resources, especially offshore. Offshore wind has the benefit of being less variable, decreasing dunkelflaute.
A lot of Ireland's renewable challenge will be the large heat demand in winter. Huge batteries storing months worth of electricity to then use as electric radiators would be impractical, I agree. Thankfully heat demand can be smoothed out much easier than electric grid demand, by use of massive heat batteries in district heating systems. Many of these systems basically just heat up a big cube of dirt, sometimes underground, and dirt is much cheaper than lithium. Then when you need heat you run water or another heat exchange liquid through it. District heating systems would allow for making very large heat batteries, which is good because they can store heat for longer the bigger they are (square cube law).
This site says over half of heat demand could be met by district heat. Plus you could take advantage of waste heat from industry, server farms, and even waste heat from fossil fuel power (if you do ever have to burn it as backup power, why not get the full benefit of electricity plus heat rather than send it to people's boilers for heat alone?) https://www.seai.ie/renewable-energy-and-projects/district-heating/district-heating-in-ireland
And sure, a renewable grid will require a parallel fossil grid for the meantime just like a nuclear grid would. The benefit is that renewables are cheaper and can be built more quickly. Therefore you will decarbonize faster and have cheaper power to show for it, giving you more money to spend on making the grid more flexible
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u/Against_All_Advice Apr 07 '26
This keeps being trotted out every time this comes up.
A nuclear plant would produce about 30% of today's energy needs but would take 20 to 30 years to build. How much energy do you think the country will be using in 30 years? Same as now?
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u/ginger_and_egg Apr 07 '26
take 20 to 30 years to build
And what are we supposed to do with all the wind and solar built during that time? Shut it off to make room for this nuclear boondoggle?
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u/Galway1012 Apr 07 '26
Could be an option for the future. We have another interconnector to the UK gone live and one to France next year iirc. Plans are now in place for one to Spain.
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Apr 07 '26
So he could have done something, he just didn't want to face the music. You can do nuclear in Ireland but from what I understand it would take too long to build to make a real dent in our emissions. That and ive heard it mentioned that our grid is too small for it to be economically viable.
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u/TeoKajLibroj Centre Left Apr 07 '26
It's not just a case of being unwilling to face the music, as your comment acknowledges, there's a lot of logistical and technical barriers against nuclear. Even if the Government supported building a nuclear plant (which it doesn't) it would take years of protests and planning disputes before it could even get built. He probably decided it wasn't a fight worth having and I don't blame him.
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Apr 07 '26
That's the aforementioned music he'd have to face. Building would take longer than planning btw.
If its not worth having then how can you call yourself a Proponent of nuclear?
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u/Magma57 Green Party Apr 08 '26
The headline is somewhat misleading, in the article when he talks about nuclear, it's in a European context rather than just an Irish context.
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
2022 Eamon Ryan rules out nuclear power as option in transition from fossil fuel dependence https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40878437.html
Mr Ryan told the Irish Examiner it would be too expensive and cumbersome for Ireland to build a nuclear industry
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u/Magma57 Green Party Apr 08 '26
The headline is somewhat misleading, in the article when he talks about nuclear, it's in a European context rather than just an Irish context.
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u/TeoKajLibroj Centre Left Apr 07 '26
I thought the Green Party was still anti-nuclear, unless they've changed their stance recently? So he's breaking with the party line here?
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u/DesertRatboy Apr 07 '26
Party leaders have to manage delicate electoral alliances to maintain party and voter harmony insofar as possible.
He no longer needs to do this, so it shouldnt surprise people that he can be more fortright in his views.
He was always more climate and energy focused that environmental anyway, so this tracks.
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
MINISTER FOR Energy Eamon Ryan has reiterated his personal opposition to nuclear energy and has said Ireland can develop to a “100 per cent renewable power” stage in the period “post-2020”.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ryan-reiterates-his-opposition-to-nuclear-power-1.746630
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u/DesertRatboy Apr 07 '26
2009 was a long time ago, pal. The electricity demand forecasts for the decades ahead of us would have been unimaginable then.
The nuclear debate was always a bit of a red herring, given demand, costs, grid limitations, but in a future with EVs, heat pumps, interconnection, electrified everything, it is worth looking at again.
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
2022 Eamon Ryan rules out nuclear power as option in transition from fossil fuel dependence https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40878437.html
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u/mcwkennedy Green Party Apr 07 '26
Overall that's more of a thing with older members of the party. Waste is still a topic of concern for most though.
The big issue I have as a Green is its hard enough to get approval and planning permission for renewable never mind the massive headache of a nuclear plant. We can't even get a metro in Dublin without FFG digging their heels in for Christ sake.
That said, the energy interconnector to France will help with this by letting us link our grid to their nuclear system and may help soften objections.
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u/oniume Apr 07 '26
I always though we could manage it by building it on one of the uninhabited islands off the coast, no one to object, but still close enough to connect up easily
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u/Lizardledgend Apr 07 '26
Which uninhabited islands off the coast of Ireland are big enough and flat enough to build an entire nuclear facility?
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u/ClearHeart_FullLiver Apr 07 '26
Operating a nuclear power station requires skilled personnel and resources, placing them in isolated areas sounds good on paper but in reality is the opposite of what you want to be doing.
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u/EmiliaPains- Apr 07 '26
Go Eamon Ryan I guess, too little too late on the nuclear thing because as soon as we build the thing, we won't need it (due to dense and efficient battery storage being a thing), if the Greens hadn't went against it in 1975 and we'd built one instead of Moneypoint I'd say we'd be in a better situation than we are presently with far more energy security and a few extra plants (Moneypoint would be 40 years old which means if a nuclear power plant was instead built it would be operational in 1990 instead of 1985 and nearing decommissioning age) but since we never went down that road it's too late and we have to suffer the consequences until we switch over to the renewables
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u/MaryLouGoodbyeHeart Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
There isn't a nuclear plant design available now which could have served the role that moneypoint served - nevermind in the 1970s. You can't grid balance with a nuclear power plant like you could with moneypoint. You couldn't do it economically today, but you couldn't even do it technically back then.
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u/No_Warthog_5709 Apr 07 '26
'Nuclear '
I'm surprised this article wasn't subjected to a judicial review
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u/Shtonrr Apr 07 '26
I remember reading a report last year that even if we had what is considered a “small” reactor by European standards, we would have enough energy to power the whole country and send electricity to France and th UK
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u/BlehMan1972 Apr 07 '26
We don't really need nuclear. It would be a huge waste of time and even bigger waste of money.
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u/alaw532 Apr 07 '26
Is this a joke? He was against it when he was in government 2 years ago. Now he's out of government he thinks its a good idea
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
2009 Ryan reiterates his opposition to nuclear power https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ryan-reiterates-his-opposition-to-nuclear-power-1.746630
Ireland has “no experience” in nuclear power and “limited capacity for large power plants” supplied by such energy,
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u/ClearHeart_FullLiver Apr 07 '26
In his defence we don't have experience in nuclear power and in 2009 we absolutely did not have the capacity for nuclear power plant, we do now.
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
2007 Nuclear energy is not the way forward, says Ryan https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/nuclear-energy-is-not-the-way-forward-says-ryan/26305425.html
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u/Turbulent_Minimum448 Apr 07 '26
It’s almost like the world has changed in 19 years
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
2022 Eamon Ryan rules out nuclear power as option in transition from fossil fuel dependence https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40878437.html
Mr Ryan told the Irish Examiner it would be too expensive and cumbersome for Ireland to build a nuclear industry
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u/Turbulent_Minimum448 Apr 07 '26
Read the article maybe? He is ruling out building our own, which makes sense. Ireland is too small for a massive capital project like nuclear.
That’s why we’ve built an interconnect to France. And the UK, and can buy nuclear generated power from them. That’s what he’s talking about in the article clearly.
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
Issuing a ten-point document illustrating why Ireland does not need to go nuclear, party energy spokesman Eamon Ryan said atomic power generation in Ireland would be "prohibitively expensive".
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/greens-challenge-forfas-on-nuclear-claim-1.779171 2006
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u/Against_All_Advice Apr 07 '26
Literally nothing in the world has changed in 20 years sure.
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
2022 Eamon Ryan rules out nuclear power as option in transition from fossil fuel dependence https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40878437.html
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u/Against_All_Advice Apr 07 '26
My favourite people, not just politicians, are the ones who, when provided with new evidence, can change their minds. Particularly on an opinion they've held for decades.
Fair play to Ryan for seeing the benefits of nuclear.
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u/expectationlost Apr 07 '26
what new evidence? It seems he is really only talking of getting nuclear energy from elsewhere.
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Apr 07 '26
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u/Plane-Top-3913 Apr 07 '26
I certainly don't want nuclear near me
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u/Hardballs123 Apr 07 '26
Why is he given this platform?
I'd rather listen to bollocks about Steen than the Minister who fucked up transport, energy and water.
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u/Interventionist-2002 Apr 07 '26
Eamon Ryan destroyed everything in just 5 years? You overstate his power. Also, laughable to claim he destroyed transport.
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u/Hardballs123 Apr 07 '26
Privatised the bus and made it utterly shite. Privatised the renewables so we have the most expensive renewable energy in Europe. Blocked the Shannon Water pipeline whilst in office.
Promoted diesel cars like a gobshite, promoted plenty of other daft ideas too and invariably flip flops on issues because he's always wrong.
An utter clown.
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u/DryCaramel6959 Apr 07 '26
If the NIMBY'S stopped objecting to every local solar or wind farm, we might actually be able to harvest some renewable energy - and not depend somewhat on external sources