About this series
Going on a good kind of power trip
Where Ireland gets its power: an introduction
Ireland is changing how it gets its energy. The plan, broadly, is to move away from imported fossil fuels and build out renewables at home plus the infrastructure that holds it all together. Things like our Climate Action Plans and renewable energy targets set out where we need to get to, but doing it well isn’t so straightforward.
The potential is big. Besides the fact of lowering emissions, energy generated at home means less exposure to the price swings that come with depending on international oil and gas markets. It means new jobs and industries, and a degree of energy independence that Ireland has not had before. But getting there also involves tricky discussions and decisions: how will land use change, who benefits, and how does it all fit together with things like nature restoration and economic wellbeing? Those questions do not always have easy answers but they’re already being asked, and this series aims to unpick them through real examples.
What to expect from this series
I will be visiting an energy project in each of Ireland’s 32 counties, spotlighting a particular topic, and writing up what I find. It is primarily a storytelling project, grounded in fact but not a technical piece (and hopefully more interesting than those!). My background is on the social side of climate, and that is where the focus will be: what is being built, where, why there, what it looks like in person, and what it means for the places and people around it.
Across the series I will aim to cover a range of project types, from wind to gas to storage to grid infrastructure to community-owned projects and beyond! I will be posting *hopefully) pretty regularly, so follow along if any of this interests you.
Why I’m doing this
I moved back to Ireland in early 2026 after six years living abroad, the last of which I spent working with communities in rural Australia navigating their own energy transition: towns committing to building huge amounts of renewable energy, and others watching fossil fuel industries they had built their identity around start to wind down.
Coming home, I realised I had lost the thread of what was happening here. The idea for this project came to me on a work trip in remote outback Queensland - plotting a route to our next destination, a town six hours away on red dirt roads, I mentioned offhand that you could drive the length of Ireland in that time. That idea stuck and facing a move home plus the prospect of starting fresh, I thought: why not do exactly that (in more than 6 hours, admittedly), and use each county as a window into a different part of our energy story?
Suggestions welcome
If you know of a project worth visiting or a person worth talking to anywhere in Ireland, I would love to hear about it!
If you have found your way here early, welcome, and I hope you enjoy the journey!
Running a community session on renewable energy in rural Australia. The kind of work that made me want to understand how the same questions and conversations are playing out in Ireland.