Darren Sherry CEO of Galetech
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk.
What controversial statement did Donald Trump make about climate change?
Donald Trump told the UN last week that climate change and decarbonisation were the greatest frauds of the 21st century. He also hates renewable energy and wind turbines, which he refers to as windmills. But the business and scientific community have totally ignored him, including my next guest, who runs a company that prepares land for the installation of turbines, as well as fixing them if they break down. And much to Trump's chagrin, he's expanding and hiring more people. He's Darren Sherry and he's the chief executive of Gail Tech in County Cavan. Good morning, Darren. Good morning, Joel. Thanks for having me on the line. Tell us a little bit more about what Gail Tech does because you've got tentacles all over the renewable energy space.
Yeah, so we've been in the business for 25 years this year. We do almost everything you can imagine on a renewable project. So we develop projects and sell electricity. We provide consultant services to other people that want to build their own projects. We measure the solar and wind resource before building projects. We asset manage those projects when they're built. Later on, we physically maintain those assets and refurbish the components when they get to end of life so that we can extend the life on the turbines. We're working in various markets. We work obviously in our home market in Ireland. We've been active here for pretty much the 25 years, but also in East and South Africa. We've been working since 2010.
We're announcing today the 65 jobs. They are very much focused on entering the UK with a wider service offering there. While the challenges in the US in policy are there, the UK is in a more progressive place in terms of opening up the market for renewable energy, particularly onshore, solar and wind in England.
Do you also store energy in some form?
We do. Well, we have a number of projects in planning with battery energy storage. We probably also have a vision that beyond battery energy storage, that Ireland has an opportunity to do something with our excess power. So that is both curtailed energy in the short term and in the long term when we've probably fulfilled our own needs, that we have an opportunity to use the power that we can generate that other countries in Europe maybe can't generate because we've such a fantastic resource available. that we can do something with that. And as part of that, we're focusing on e-fuels. We're doing a research and development project at the moment, a one megawatt project, which will turn basically renewable electricity and captured carbon into e-fuel, which can be used, for example, in the aviation sector or indeed in the motor sector, basically as a like-for-like solution.
Swap.
Equivalent, yeah. And you think Irish renewable energy might be among the cheapest to produce in Europe. Tell us more about that.
Absolutely, yeah. We've got fantastic fundamentals, particularly on wind in this market. We all know it's a very, very windy place relative to continental Europe.
And it's going to get a lot windier this weekend.
Yeah.
Indeed, yeah, we're going to have some storms coming through.
How does Galetech contribute to the renewable energy sector?
Look, just looking at the most recent res auctions, which were published last week, we're seeing prices there at 9.6 cent per kilowatt hour for the next 15 years. And I think critically to look at those numbers, 70% of that number is not indexed. So it will be the same number in 15 years time as it is today.
And is that what the Irish government is going to pay energy providers?
Yes.
So it's a contract for difference. So effectively, the project is guaranteed that number. But equally, if the market price for electricity goes over that number, the developer will not benefit from that. The Irish state will benefit from that.
OK, so the Irish state could, in fact, get some very cheap energy because I was looking at the chart yesterday, which suggested that Irish manufacturing or kind of mass use of energy is paying the second highest in Europe. Only the Brits are paying more than we are.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:08
2
What controversial statement did Donald Trump make about climate change?
0:08–3:01
3
How does Galetech contribute to the renewable energy sector?
3:01–6:00
4
What job opportunities is Galetech creating and where?
6:00–6:32
5
How does Galetech plan to expand its services in the UK?
6:32–7:39
6
What role does energy storage play in Galetech's projects?
7:39–8:01