Vol. 417 No. 2
11 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Energy if he will outline the relative impact on climate of, (a) operating a 470 MW gas powered generation station and (b) achieving a similar reduction in electricity demand through conservation measures; and whether this has any implication for national energy policy.
Gas use in electricity generation is the least polluting in the case of carbon dioxide emissions and, furthermore, does not emit sulphur dioxide or nitrogen oxide pollutants. Obviously, there will be less pollution if we avoid the need for new generating stations. We must be realistic, however, and realise the importance of energy for economic growth, particularly in the context of our desire to match EC income levels at some time in the future.
This Department's on-going energy conservation policy is to encourage the efficient use of all forms of energy, including electricity, in all sectors of the economy in order to have a secure mix of energy forces to conserve resources, to achieve financial savings and to protect the environment. The ESB have adapted their marketing policy to employ a range of demand-side management strategies with the aim of improving end user efficiencies as a key objective. The improved efficiency of energy utilisation will be a major component in stabilising CO2 emissions.
This programme has resulted in savings on some 53MW hours in 1991 and the ESB envisage that by the year 2000 the construction of 270MW of additional new plant will have been avoided.
Does the Minister accept that Ireland is recognised as being the least energy efficient nation in the EC and that it is variously estimated that we are burning between £450 million and £600 million annually in wasted energy? Could the Minister outline if the Minister has yet set any conservation targets or are we simply making ad hoc decisions in relation to new plants without any overall analysis of what we could save, where we could save it and programmes to achieve those savings?
I regret that it is a fact of life that we are not among the more energy efficient nations. The Minister for Energy has made quite some efforts to introduce the concept of conservation into this country. It is not a very easy concept to introduce. However, he is availing of every opportunity to do so and encouraging major energy distributors such as the ESB, for example, to strive in that direction. I hope he will have greater success in his time in that regard than I had in my time.
Would the Minister not accept that it would be a great deal easier to achieve serious conservation if the tiny budget for conservation measures was not halved in the last Estimates and that serious objectives were set by the Department there might be some chance of people aspiring to conservation? There is no public programme of information or encouragement in one of the most seriously under-efficient areas of Government.
I do not think it is correct to say there is no programme, but obviously the programme would be better if there was more money to spend on it. The Deputy will be aware of the considerable pressures on public financial resources. I hope that more can be done in this area but it can be done not just by the expenditure of public moneys but by people adopting a more conservationist attitude towards the use of energy, frequently in their own interst. I am glad to be able to say that in important sectors of industry there has been a tremendous improvement in recent years in the conservation of energy and I would like to see that in the domestic and commercial spheres as well.
