asked the Minister for Energy if he will make a statement on the alternative energy sources listed in the booklet, Toward Energy Independence, published by the Solar Energy Society of Ireland.
Written Answers. - Alternative Energy Sources.
41.
The sources listed in the publication referred to by the Deputy cover almost the whole spectrum of energy including solar, biomass, hydropower, wave power, wind power and hydrocarbons.
There are current developments in all these areas both here and abroad which have potentially important implications for reducing our dependence on imported fuels. Even if I were to confine a statement to details of and comment on the projects and studies in progress or planned in Ireland on these various sources, such a statement would be considerably more lengthy than would normally be considered appropriate in reply to a question in the House.
The search for and development of alternative energy sources has a high priority in the objectives of national energy policy which I am setting. I am in the process of introducing a coordinating mechanism so that I will receive regular information from the various State bodies, educational establishments and other organisations engaged in specific energy projects. A number of such projects are at present in train—for example, a project on wind power—under the direct control of my Department or bodies associated with it. The objective will be to apply, without undue interference with the free play of initiative and research effort, a measure of co-ordination at national level. Such co-ordination is necessary to enable comparative evaluations of the potential of all such sources and projects to be made and to ensure that so far as practicable all the work in these various fields will fit in with national energy policy.