SuperNode founder and owner Eddie O’Connor spoke with the Irish Times about his current outlook on the decarbonisation movement.
O’Connor has become a stalwart of the movement. For decades he has been fighting climate change on numerous fronts, from his entry into the renewables industry in the 80s, to his founding of Airtricity, Mainstream Renewable Power and most recently SuperNode.
His newest battle front is the world of international conferences with ‘The Dublin Climate Dialogues’.
“The Dublin Climate Dialogues initiative, which O’Connor is leading and is in “building momentum phase”, is an international pre-COP26 conference to be held in May, which aims to be the catalyst for a much more meaningful outcome in November. It’s about “occupying a position of thought leadership in the world”, he explains, as “this COP has to succeed or we are all fried”.”
According to O’Connor, the two largest jigsaw pieces in meeting our Paris Climate targets are urgently getting global policies right – COP26 will be a watershed moment in this regard – and embracing and enhancing the technologies around solar, wind, batteries and grids.
O’Connor later goes on to accept that the Irish government are moving in the right direction but concedes the limitations in place could be damaging. He brings particular attention to countries like Poland, Estonia and Finland who are further along in the development of an offshore wind network despite their relatively weaker wind resources.
“Asked if the Government is on the correct strategic footing in pursuing sustainability, the firm answer is “Yes”. But given its commitment to build 30,000MW offshore he says the question has to be asked: “How can they do that, when they’ve never tried it before, when we’re a non-industrialised economy?”
In a European context, O’Connor has long been touting the logic of a pan-European Supergrid, efficiently and reliably connecting all Europeans to cheap, carbon-free electricity. O’Connor founded SuperNode to help make this Supergrid a reality. SuperNode is developing superconductor cables that can transmit bulk amounts of electricity with zero electrical losses.
“Decarbonising Europe is a continental problem, he underlines. It’s no longer about overcoming intermittency (when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine), it’s about getting vast amounts of cheap offshore energy in north-western Europe and solar around the Mediterranean to where there is most demand in the centre.”
“..the pursuit of a European supergrid, with SuperNode playing a lead role dispersing electricity at speed with no electrical resistance. O’Connor believes it’s critical to Europe achieving net-zero emissions.”
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