‘We need a radical, green vision’ Sunday, May 31, 2009 ‘Energy conscious’ does not mean huddling in the cold , wearing an extra pullover and sharing a shower,” said Professor Owen Lewis. As the recently appointed chief executive of Sustainable Energy Ireland, some might expect Lewis to be a green idealist, but his vision of sustainability is a practical one.
As both an architect and engineer - although he considers himself an architect at heart - his latest role, with the statutory agency to promote the development of a sustainable energy economy, sees his career coming full circle.
The desk where he now sits lies at the heart of a building he helped design more than a decade ago. Lewis’ research group at University College Dublin designed the building to house the Irish Energy Centre, SEI’s forerunner, in the 1990s.
A stint working in architectural practice, followed by time working in Zambia, marked the start of his varied career. Next came a 25-year career in academia, which saw him rise to the top of UCD’s College of Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. At one point, Lewis’ research projects accounted for one-seventh of all research funding UCD attracted.
Following this work, he began a new chapter in the public sector; his most recent role was as Bord na Móna’s director of innovation, research and development.
He is taking over at SEI at a time when budgets throughout the public sector are being cut but, for Lewis, the outlook is brighter than for many of his counterparts.
‘‘Our capital budget has increased this year. The increase is not as big as we thought initially, but it is still substantial,” he said. ‘‘Our overall budget went up this year but, in the emergency budget that followed, parts of that were reduced.
For example, it was an additional €50 million for home energy savings, but this is down to €49 million now.”
While he faces the same constraints on recruitment and promotions, Lewis said the organisation was a lean one.
He cited SEI’s home energy savings scheme, which provides grants to homeowners who want to improve the energy efficiency of their home, as an ‘‘excellent example of e-government’’.
‘‘That scheme is essentially administered on a web basis. More than 75 per cent of applications are made online. If the application meets the requirements, the approval is also given online, meaning an immediate turnaround,” he said.
According to Lewis, all of SEI’s grant programmes are open for business as usual, following a recent suspension of funding schemes for green initiatives in homes. ‘‘In the preparation for the emergency budget, it was a case of trying to get a handle on what was going on. Like every other organisation in the public sector, we were effectively told to pause things. But that’s now running again,” he said.
Lewis sees big opportunities for the construction sector in terms of green technology, but he also thinks that the construction industry needs to be shaken up.
‘‘There is a big hassle factor for the householder dealing with multiple providers. The building industry needs to reorganise itself to deliver an integrated service, including finance,” he said.
‘‘We can see insulating a house as just more of what we have done before, or we can see it as part of a whole new industry here. To be honest, we need to think radically differently about it. We know that, over the last ten years, the focus has been on new building. This will be seen as an aberration in the future when new builds are not dominant.”
Lewis’ role does not focus solely on the energy we use at home or work. ‘‘We need to remember that electricity accounts for only about 18 per cent of demand. We need to keep some focus on the other 82 per cent, things like transportation and heat,” he said.
In order to meet the energy targets Ireland has committed to, Lewis thinks we need to take a serious look at how we get from A to B and the fuel we use along the way. A project to get electric cars onto Irish roads is already under way, but Lewis said this could prove challenging in an environment where people are reluctant to spend.
‘‘I think we have to anticipate that [the prices of electric vehicles] are going to be pretty high. Battery technology has been comparatively neglected,” he said. To his mind, upgrading the relevant technology is only half the battle. He also sees the need for widescale business innovation.
Some have raised concerns that so-called ‘‘green issues’’ will slip down the agenda as the government struggles with its financial woes.
‘‘I have not the smallest fear about that,” said Lewis. ‘‘The financial thing is temporary. These things go in cycles. I have no idea what the duration of the cycle is going to be, but what I am clear about is that energy ain’t going to go away. It’s the key driver in the process of climate change, and that’s going to stay there.
‘‘The big energy players work on timescales of decades, not on years or months or even days and hours like our financial system.”
In Lewis’s view, not enough people make the link between improving energy efficiency now and becoming a more cost-competitive economy in the future. ‘‘I’d say that connection is just not there yet.” Lewis said Ireland had the potential to develop ‘‘energy hubs’’ around the country. ‘‘There is a whole other industry associated with it,” he said, citing a range of possibilities for creating employment around alternative energy platforms.
In his view, there are jobs in maintaining and repairing the offshore technology for either wind or wave farms, something which he thinks could represent a retraining opportunity for people currently working in the fishing industry.
However, creating energy hubs would not be a problem-free solution.
‘‘We would need to strengthen our grid. The resource tends to be in the west of Ireland, while most of the population is in the east,” Lewis said.
While Ireland has the natural resources at its disposal to be a viable player in the energy sector, Lewis thinks we need a more radical vision.
‘‘It is not just about providing the right sites and the right climate, but about developing an industry,” he said.
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