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The Frustration of
Sustainable Energy
Planning
I was very pleased to be invited to attend some of the 21st Kerry Environmental Conference in Tralee by Sean Quinlan who is the main organiser. I found Sean a very interesting man to talk with. He is a virtual encyclopedia on the geology and history of the region, and has researched, written, and produced a stunning series of 3 books on Kerry called "The Great Book of Kerry".
Wave Energy.
The Saturday morning session was very stimulating with three speakers. Brendan Barry manager of ESB Ocean Energy outlined some of the interesting ocean projects with which he is involved.
Pumped Storage.
Padraig Howard representing a very much evolved "Spirit of Ireland" organisation, spoke with great passion and clarity on glacial valley pumped storage, Ireland's huge capacity for wind energy, and the need for storage to make it all viable. The shape of the "Spirit of Ireland" organisation seems to have changed quite a bit - but the central proposition of utilising glacial valleys as pumped storage reservoirs. which was initially put forward by Prof. Igor Shvets and Graham O'Donnell, seems still intact.
The Spiders Web of Planning Applications.
Gus McCarthy a planning consultant with experience in wind energy gave the final session. Gus's session gave me one major headache. Not because Gus was inadequate in his presentation, far from it, Gus knew his stuff really well, and gave a very competent presentation.
What gave me the headache were the countless regulations, rules, by-laws, stipulations, and endless red-tape associated with making an application to install any project. All but the very hardy would give up when faced with such a mountain of regulations.
I came across the following about the power of words and it had immediate resonance with the frustration of dealing with the army of bureaucrats and regulation the EU has thrust upon us.
THE POWER OF WORDS
Pythagoras' Theorem: ..............................24 words.
Lord's prayer: .................................... 66 words.
Archimedes' Principle: ............................67 words.
Ten Commandments: ................................179 words.
Gettysburg address: ..............................286 words.
US Declaration of Independence : ................1,300 words.
US Constitution with all 27 Amendments: .........7,818 words.
EU regulations on the sale of CABBAGES: ........26,911 words.
And remember that in the EU we the citizens pay for those tons of documents by the word!!
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1 comment:
Someone should look at the expenses of ESB's administration. Look at their internal 'gazzette' called ESB Electric Mail. They spoil themselves with costly celebration of their lazy administrative work. They use taxpayers' money for their administrative teams bonuses and those people have absolutely nothing to do with energy distribution. The whole thing should be privatised!!!
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