Midlands energy export project will not go ahead

The export of green energy from the Irish midlands to the UK will not now take place by 2020.

The news came yesterday (Sunday, April 13), when Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte announced that further examination of the Renewable Energy Export Project arising from the London Summit had failed to conclude an Inter-Governmental Agreement to facilitate the green energy export from the midlands within the EU’s 2020 timeframe.

“Renewable energy trading has to be designed to work,” Minister Rabbitte said.

“Following further discussions between my Department and the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the UK since the Summit between the Taoiseach and Prime Minister Cameron in early March, I am confirmed in the view that given the economic, policy and regulatory complexities involved, and the key decisions yet to be taken by the UK, delivery by 2020 of a Midlands Wind Export Project is not now a realistic proposition.”

“I regret that it has not possible at this time to conclude an agreement as envisaged,” Minister Rabbitte said, before adding that despite failing to reach an agreement green energy export is still on the cards.

“I believe that in the context of an European Internal Market and greater integration, greater trade in energy between Britain and Ireland is inevitable in the post 2020 scenario,” he said.

“Economic analysis conducted on the Irish side clearly indicates that under agreed policy and regulatory conditions, renewable energy trading can deliver significant ecnomic benefits to Ireland and the UK, as well as being attractive to developers.”