The fossil fuel industry has cleverly positioned gas as the “good guy” fossil fuel with the “transitional” label granting gas a stay of execution in the move to renewable energy. Gas is promoted as a facilitator of the renewable transition – but it’s a hollow narrative if we look at what is driving the need for more gas (see data centre runaway train). We have had to increase our commitment to new gas infrastructure due to a supposed “energy crisis” but all of a sudden, it seems that Green guru and gas champion Eamon Ryan is having a change of heart as he prepares to exit the stage.

As recently as November 2021, the Irish Times were reporting that the government were to give the go-ahead for several new gas-fired power plants over the next decade. This report suggested that 2GW of gas power would require between 4 – 7 new gas-fired plants, depending on size. This was in addition to 15GW of renewable energy, it was stated. This report briefly mentions data centres as “a factor” – evidently not foreseeing that it would become the dominant factor in energy consumption within a couple of years.

By November 2023, Eamon Ryan had plans to acquire a new emergency gas storage ship as part of the overall plan to ensure energy security. The cost of this floating storage was estimated to be €300m and it would continuously hold about a fortnight’s worth of gas consumption and be supplied by other liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels.

The proposal for a floating LNG terminal was opposed by Friends of the Earth and other international activist groups in May 2024.

It now appears that the LNG storage facility – a back-up for a national energy crisis – may no longer be needed, according to Minister Ryan. Nobody thus far has thought to ask what is the cause of the energy crisis, if it’s not the 21% of total energy consumed by data centres!

“In this decade, we are at risk [of running short of gas], we have an exposure,” Ryan said, according to the Irish Independent article.

If we are at risk of running short of gas, then why is the government energy strategy pursuing between 4 and 7 new gas-fired power plants targeting 2GW of gas burning capacity? In fact, a scan of live and/or approved planning applications around the country shows plans for closer to 4GW including the one proposed for Portumna. Why are the planners allowing commercial interests to vastly exceed government targets on new gas-burning capabilities when they government are bound by Climate Action targets?

There is a real danger that should these unsightly monstrosities be given permission to proceed, they will soon become stranded assets – serving nobody other than the corporate interests that constructed them in the first place. How have we arrived at a situation where new gas-fired power plants were an absolute necessity in 2021, despite knowing that the only indigenous gas field is heading towards expiry?

Now, we are being told by Eamon Ryan that the floating offshore LNG facility may not be necessary, in the event of a “dramatic reduction in gas consumption”. This bring us straight back to the data centres, 11 of which have permission to connect to the gas supply through Gas Networks Ireland (GNI). Surely it’s the government’s own economic policy of attracting energy guzzling data centres to the country that is the only significant inhibitor of a dramatic reduction in gas consumption?

Eamon Ryan is set to ride off into the sunset at the end of the current term of government – what then for the future of gas as part of Ireland’s energy mix? Will we have a countryside peppered with redundant gas turbines?