Could Wind Energy provide 100% of Irelands energy needs in the future?
While it would be technically possible to install enough wind turbines to meet the future annual total electricity demand of Ireland, given the current technological limitations this would be highly unlikely. The problem is that while wind energy created might meet total demand over the year, Ireland is a relatively small meteorological area and there are going to be times where electricity generation is extremely low due to very load wind speeds across the country and similarly periods where generation exceeds demand. The only way in which one might solve this problem would be to have the national grid fully integrated with a much larger electrical grid such as the UK or Europe, where we could import electricity in times of shortage and, and export energy in times of surplus. Even then, the connections required to safely import periodically the majority of the country’s electrical demand would make the scenario highly unlikely. The most likely long term sustainable solution to Ireland
