Letter re. Portlaoise Carbon Footprint plan

Dear Councillor,
I am writing to you on behalf of three local groups; People Over Wind (Cullenagh),
Ratheniska, Timahoe, Spink Substation Action Group (RTS) and Concerned Residents of
Spink regarding serious issues with Portlaoise Town’s new Carbon Footprint Study.
We urge you to reject this report, and to go back to the drawing board for the reasons outlined
below.
The commissioning of this report by Laois Co. Co. from a wind turbine manufacturer raises
serious issues regarding conflicts of interest, objectivity and waste of money. Did Laois Co
Co actually pay for this report? If they did, we urge you to call for an immediate, urgent
independent investigation.
This study was carried out by a company that manufactures wind turbines, Siemens. Given
that fact, it will come as no great surprise that the study proposes the roll out of large-scale
industrial wind developments, among other scenarios, to lower Portlaoise’s carbon emissions.
One such scenario, by our estimation, would require about two massive turbines per km 2
throughout the county.
Media reporting of the study implies that the electricity generated from wind would be
supplied directly to Portlaoise, rather than through the national grid; a notion that verges on
fantasy. In fact, on closer reading, a ‘power purchase agreement’ is proposed. This entails an
agreement whereby a ‘renewable’ electricity provider agrees to provide electricity, either
physically (renewable and non-renewable), or on a balance sheet only, to replace the existing
electricity supply (renewable and non-renewable!). Most likely, unless Portlaoise proposes to
build a second electricity grid (pylons and overhead lines included), this ‘new supply’ will
exist on paper only.
The authors assume that wind replaces ‘current installed energy mix in equal proportion’.
This, too, is abject nonsense. Turbines do not produce electricity when the wind is not
blowing but we still need electricity on these days. To date, no grid-scale storage has been
developed. For example, the ESB, reporting to an Oireachtas committee, noted that it would
take 60 Turloughs Hills or 14 million Tesla Powerwalls to store electricity for one day’s
supply. Thus, conventional sources of electricity are required when the wind does not blow.
These sources have to ramp up and down to match the vagaries of wind, thus rendering them
less efficient. This inefficiency from ramping up and down has been described as akin to
revving and braking a car, which produces more emissions compared with when driving at a
constant speed on a motorway.
In addition, the calculated saving in emissions of 34% from Portlaoise’s baseline are wildly
out of line with the SEAI’s annual reports on emissions saved from wind. The authors do not
describe their calculations in sufficient detail and the figures and tables in the report are
lacking in descriptive information to allow full independent analysis.
Nationally, wind saves about 4% of our overall CO2 emissions every year, a paltry sum
considering wind turbines’ negative impacts and the potential for other, simpler solutions.
The turbines proposed in this report would have enormous social, environmental and
economic impacts and little benefit, apart from lining the pockets of the authors. For
example, families impacted by noise and infrasound may have to abandon their homes as
they have done in other parts of the country. The turbines may negatively impact habitats and

the enormous costs would be better spent on other measures to reduce emissions. As you are
aware our communities have faced challenges on these matters:
• The people of Cullenagh have spent the last nine years fighting Coillte regarding a
massive proposed windfarm on the mountain that threatens to precipitate the
extinction of the Nore Fresh Water Pearl Mussel.
• The people of RTS have had to put in an extraordinary effort for over a decade to
protect the threatened aquifer which feeds the water supply for many thousands of
Laois people, as well as protect the local environment from a spiderweb of high
voltage power lines and pylons which would negatively impact Laois people,
environment, landscapes, tourism and heartland industries for generations.
• The people of Spink are also fighting for the last eight years and ongoing, various
iterations of an industrial scale windfarm and now proposed associated massive
110kV substation. These developments will lead to serious long-term consequences
for the entire community, including dividing neighbours and forcing affected families
to move away from what is already a small rural community.
Nonsensical renewable scenarios, that can have no meaningful impact, undermine real efforts
to reduce emissions and make people cynical. This is especially the case in Laois where our
communities have done battle with large wind and grid developers for many years, at great
personal and financial cost.
We are asking three things of you as our public representative:
1. To establish who commissioned this report and how the procurement process granted
the job to Siemens, who have clear conflicts of interest.
2. To establish the cost of the report.
3. To reject the findings of this report and to ask LCC to appoint independent
researchers to establish the best ways of reducing emissions in Portlaoise and Co.
Laois.
We look forward to your response.