forecast to increase further in the years aheadHowever, the Irish Academy of Engineering has recently released a report raising concerns that the Government is placing too much emphasis on solar and wind.Energy and Climate Action Committee Chair Eamonn O’Reilly said the country will need a more diverse energy mix.“It gets talked about very frequently; we all know it’s there and what intermittency is at nighttime there’s no solar.
“We’re riding one horse which may not get to the finish line; the view of the academy is that we should be preparing for the possibility that hydrogen doesn’t work as a means of backing up renewables.”The British Government plans to build a number of Small Modular Reactors in the coming years in order to reduce its carbon footprint.
However, nuclear fission is currently banned in Ireland and Mr O’Reilly said this should be reconsidered. “Ireland should be preparing for the possibility of small modular reactions in case we end up needing them when we find ourselves in a bind,” he said.and SMRs could help generate it.“One or two certainly would not be enough; in the report, we useOpponents of nuclear power have described it as inherently dangerous - citing the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
However, Mr O’Reilly believes the technology is “tried and tested” and safely generates zero-carbon power for millions around the world.