A new report indicates that energy storage, which uses batteries or other means to store electricity, could create thousands of jobs.
The report, commissioned by Energy Storage Ireland, also states that eight times more capacity is needed if Ireland is to meet renewable targets.
Energy storage plants mostly use batteries to store electricity when there is more supply than demand, though green hydrogen is expected to become part of the mix.
If Ireland is to meet the target of moving from having 40% of electricity from renewable sources now to 100% by 2035, we will have massively reduce the amount that's wasted.
Today's report says that in 2020 enough electricity to power all of Galway city twice over for a year was wasted because the grid could not take it or because demand was low when the wind was blowing.
It says to eliminate fossil fuels from our electricity supply energy storage capacity will have to increase from the current level of around 700MW to more than five gigawatts.
The industry is calling for training and development programme to support this and somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 jobs could be created.
