Russia’s war against Ukraine; and now the USA and Israel’s joint war against Iran have really underlined the importance of sovereign nations being energy independent. It begs the question writes Fiona Hayes Vincent why countries do not regularly re-evaluate their independence in food supply, medical supplies and energy.
We have all seen the price of petrol and diesel soar over the past month, with blockades at pumps, slow moving haulier convoys and tractor protests. Some garages have limited fuel supplies per vehicle and some pumps have run out of fuel. The cost of home heating is reported to have increased by up to 20 per cent since the start of the Iran war.
Some countries have been much less affected by global threats to the supplies of energy. Iceland, for example, runs entirely on renewable energy. Approximately 75.5 per cent of the country’s electricity comes from hydropower, which is their primary source of electricity, the other 24.5 per cent coming from geothermal energy. As early as 2022, 60 per cent of vehicles in Iceland ran on electricity, and electricity costs remain stable and low.
Paraguay produces all of its electricity from hydropower. Nepal uses hydropower for 98.6 per cent of its total electrical output, solar energy producing the remaining 1.4 per cent. Nepal is about 2.11 times the size of Ireland in area and has a population of 29.6 million people, compared to Ireland‘s 5.3 million people.
Ethiopia, which is about 16 times bigger than Ireland, with a population of 135 million, produces 96 per cent of its electricity from hydropower, with wind energy making up the remaining four per cent.
Certainly, energy independence is not only a possibility but can be demonstrated in countries across the globe to be a reality.
Electricity prices in Ireland are among the highest in Europe, with further increases of four to nine per cent warned for summer 2026. This is due to the reliance on imports of gas and oil to supply electricity and the global pressures on supplies of those commodities.
Ireland’s government has however committed to ensuring energy is affordable, sustainable, and secure and that Ireland will move from an oil and gas-based energy system to an electricity-led system, maximising renewable energy and being linked into Europe’s energy systems.
EirGrid, a Private Limited Company owned by the Irish Government is responsible for planning, managing and developing Ireland’s high-voltage electricity grid. This high-voltage grid is connected to the low voltage distribution system managed by ESB Networks who are also government-owned and who supply power directly to homes and business around the country.
Despite objections from rural Irish residents, the transition to sustainable energy is focused almost entirely on large wind farms feeding into the already existing centralised electricity grid. Research shows however that decentralised energy systems are the most efficient solution available to enable low-carbon energy transitions.
Decentralised energy systems use several different technologies such as small-scale wind turbines, geothermal, hydropower and solar, giving flexibility to meet energy demand from industries, households, and state enterprises such as hospitals, universities and public buildings.
Almost all countries achieving close to 100 per cent renewable energy supply do so by using digitalised, smart, decentralised supply systems that operate at building scale or block scale.
Decentralisation creates hundreds or thousands of tiny, localised electricity-generating systems attached to homes, communities or businesses. Taking advantage of localised environmental conditions to share power, they provide electricity locally feeding excess back into the power grid for distribution elsewhere.
To do this however would require that Ireland rethink the policy that favours a centralised system which suffers a five per cent loss of power, as that power is transported long distances. Decentralisation would need a greater mix of energy production technologies to be used and businesses that are extremely heavy on energy, such as data centres, would have to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
Currently data centres use about 23 per cent of Ireland’s total energy consumption. This is expected to rise to 35 per cent by 2030; however they also provide considerable financial support to Ireland’s green energy sector, by underpinning the development of new renewable generation that will help to achieve the target of 70 per cent electricity from renewables by 2030.
The Irish Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) created a policy aligning data centre growth with decarbonisation. It requires planning applications to demonstrate on-site or nearby renewable energy generation. New data centres connecting to the electricity network are required to provide electricity generation and/or storage capacity either onsite or in local proximity. This electricity generation and storage must match the requested data centre maximum demand capacity and will be required to participate in the wholesale electricity market thus supporting the overall system.
An article on science direct.com ‘Ten questions concerning decentralised energy systems governance’ states that “If we are to succeed with achieving the ambitious low-carbon energy transition targets embraced by many nation-states, cities and corporations, electrification and development of more decentralised energy systems will have to play a large role, and their governance is bound to become a matter of increased attention and interest. A decentralised energy system implies fundamental changes in electricity sector governance towards devolution of control, planning, and operation of electricity system functions (production, sales, distribution, and grid balancing) from a few central actors to include also a great many small-scale actors at more localised levels Typically, decentralised energy systems involve shorter-distance supply from small generation units owned by active consumers (individually or as energy communities that may share a microgrid, constitute a positive energy district (PED) or positive energy neighbourhood (PEN), and may also assist in solving local grid operation challenges by offering flexibility in supply and demand. A prerequisite for detecting and tackling local grid congestion challenges and flexibilities in consumption and production towards solutions is the provision of fine-grained information based on digitalisation of the grid through grid company installation of smart meters and sensors.”
Ireland has doubled wind energy capacity over the past 10 years and solar is now Ireland’s third largest source of indigenous electricity generation. It just squeezes in to the list of top ten countries leading the way with wind and solar penetration.
If, like the Danish government, Ireland required all new wind projects to be between 20 and 50 per cent community-owned, citizens, especially those in rural areas, would immediately benefit financially from the shift to renewables. If this shift also focused on decentralised systems, then community acceptance could facilitate a rapid transition to energy independence and security pushing towards renewable energy targets for 2030 and minimising the threat that comes from geopolitical events triggered by other countries. The Irish government has after all, committed to ensuring energy is affordable, sustainable, and secure.
