Comments on: Spirit of Ireland – do the numbers add up?

By: brendan mcdonnell

brendan mcdonnell — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:54:43 +0000

my father used to say that ireland would be a great little country,if we could only get the irish out of it.

By: SK

SK — Sat, 15 May 2010 13:48:43 +0000

Derek, I am not giving you the boot. You are free to make your argument here and to continue to post comments. (though I do prefer to see some effort at spelling, punctuation, and capitalisation).

Pretty much anything is possible “in theory”, but in practice you run into political, technical, economic, political, envriomental obstacles. The reality is that the idea SOI have proposed is about as likely to deliver energy independence to Ireland as fusion power – another one that looks possible in theory but remains 30 years in the future (and has done for the last 60 years).

I would suggest that you sit back and carefully think about the implications of your statement that we would not know how much it would cost until we built it. Would you back any scheme where the designers were looking for a blank cheque?

By: Derek

Derek — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:03:42 +0000

oh i see when somebody disagrees with your point of view they get the boot,that makes sense to you im sure but not to me i thought this was a discussion not an arguement,you contradict yourself by saying its a stupid idea yet at the top of your page where you do the analysis yourself you say “yes in theory we could generate enough power to run the country” so the idea is far from stupid, your problem seems to be the size of the wind farms and reservoirs needed to achieve the power and the damage done to the landscape, maybe it will spiol certain views on the west coast,this is a small price to pay for energy independance.and on the cost soi can only estimate noboby would have that info until completion you know how things work in ireland double the time and price and you have your answer.lets not get hysterical here “financial fraud”is a bit ott dont you think.

By: SK

SK — Sat, 15 May 2010 01:12:53 +0000

Derek, apologies for getting the name wrong. Your comment on experts falls into the category of “not even wrong“, and in the normal course of events would automatically disqualify you from the argument (apart from having the philosophical discussion about how you determine if anyone is right after you automatically dismiss any informed opinions on a technical subject as being worthless as they are from “experts”). But to humuor you, I shall point out that just because some people who described themselves are “experts” in a field which everyone admits is more art than science, managed to pull a fast one which trashed the world’s financial system, that doesn’t change the fact that real experts, like engineers, scientists, and people who can do simple business cases (like cash in should equal or be greater than cash out to make something viable) have looked at SOI and found it to be severly lacking. Their costings don’t work, their techical assumptions are grossly optimistic, and they are basing their scheme on technology that in some cases doesn’t exist, and it others has never been run at this sort of scale before anywhere.

Ironically SOI have more in common with the financial frauds than anyone else.

By: Derek

Derek — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:00:26 +0000

forget the so called “experts” its these masters and degree owning clowns that have this country in the infastructural and economic mess its in today. these guys have a brilliant idea and thats what it is at the moment they say that themselfs,they need more info on costs land use etc. but at least there looking to the future,it may not be perfect but it isnt a stupid idea either, far from it,im sure with some tweaks and refinement it will work and we will look back on this project as a monumental moment in irish history.ps your excused for your unfortunate use of language and by the way its Derek.

By: David

David — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:33:06 +0000

This is a great future project for Ireland, why all this begrudging? The representatives behind this projects are specialist’s in different area’s and clearly have displayed they are competent to implement this proposed strategy,this could possibly be one of the element’s to help get Ireland get back to moving economy.

SK So far what(renewable energy experts, economists and engineers)said that it was’nt a good idea?????? we should be supporting a project like this not bringing it down. I think its a great idea.

By: SK

SK — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:03:03 +0000

David, its a stupid idea. It sounds nice, but any expert that has looked at it (you know renewable energy experts, economists and engineers) say these guys are talking shite. Any they STILL have to produce the detailed numbers we have been promised for about a year now. This is bunk.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:29:25 +0000

spirit of ireland is a great idea that must go ahead as soon as possible,all the talk of loss of habitat is a n unfortunate side effect of the world we live in today these lakes have a total area of 1,280 acres each,our biggest fresh water lake is lough corrib 44,000 acres so these would be insignificant by comparison. would these same people be happy with intermittent power supply 10-20 years down the line when oil and gas become more scarce and a barrel of oil hits $500 because thats whats coming, we have to make sacrifices now so we dont suffer in the future.

By: Conor Spillane

Conor Spillane — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:40:50 +0000

Nice idea but show me numbers and thousands of jobs doing what where and most importantly when

By: K O`Shea

K O`Shea — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:16:27 +0000

Brilliant idea!! Work out the details and get the people on board!!