Trevor Johnston

28 Apr

Irish mother searching for something to say about the newborn: "he is getting big" HE'S SIX DAYS OLD

The first of each month is a busy day at the @greencollective.io home office! Highlights of our September issue: - county-level dispatch down analysis for wind - battery record deep-dive by @feiwang.bsky.social - annual solar growth map Read it online: currents.greencollective.io/irish-grid-m...

Green Collective@greencollective.io

The Irish grid in September: 🔹 43.0% renewables: 36.8% wind 💨, 4.8% solar ☀️, 1.1% biomass 🪵, 0.3% hydro 💧 🔹 39.1% fossil fuels: 37.5% gas 🏭️, 1.6% waste-to-energy 🔥 🔹 1.3% storage: 0.8% pumped hydro ⛰️, 0.5% batteries 🔋 🔌 16.5% imports All this and much more in the latest "Irish Grid Monthly"!

Riveting reading, obviously -- but might be of interest to close followers of @greencollective.io closely who are curious what sort of datasets we have to juggle 🤓 (fun fact: there are at *least* half a dozen sources of Irish solar data, at varying resolutions/timeliness/completeness)

Green Collective@greencollective.io

A sunny Monday, and EirGrid's dashboard showing a new all-island solar high: 1402MW ☀️ However, it's too close to call: as our charts show, spikes in real-time data are often later revised down and/or disappear with downsampling. Record or not, it's great to see such highs well into the autumn! ☀️

6 Sept

Catching up on Irish Traitors and *of course* someone's swearing before the opening credits have even started. Let's go! #TraitorsIRL

6 Sept

More serious thoughts on this year's #TraitorsIRL: - much less diverse than last year - have they no electric vehicles at Slane Castle? - Traitors Uncloaked remains essential companion viewing (and I'm so glad they invited last year's three winners onto the first episode rather than Paudie)

4 Sept

I don't think we've posted a map of *all* generation before, i.e. one including fossil fuels. I made this one offset some markers slightly so that none overlap -- I think it highlights the wind/solar/gas regions pretty well? 🧪

Green Collective@greencollective.io

How Ireland met electricity demand during August: 🔹 26.7% renewables: 18.2% wind 💨, 6.8% solar ☀️, 1.7% biomass 🪵, 0.1% hydro 💧 🔹 49.2% fossil fuels: 47.6% gas 🔥, 1.5% waste-to-energy 🔥, 0.1% oil 🛢️ 🔹 1.3% storage: 0.8% pumped hydro ⛰️, 0.5% batteries 🪫 🔌 22.5% imports (from our latest newsletter)

4 Sept

Latest Irish bureaucracy side-quest: seven weeks and counting to close my old Credit Union account.

Trevor Johnston reposted

Green Collective

@greencollective.io

27 Aug

Even as autumn approaches, Ireland saw a new all-time solar record on Monday: 1.4GW, about 4% higher than the previous record in May ☀️ How is this possible? Solar capacity has grown faster than the sun's seasonal decline. Below, we've highlighted the most improved solar farms since May 📊

26 Aug

Win win this afternoon: fixed a long-standing intermittent database performance headache and found the perfect opportunity to use the word "folderol" in a code comment 💪

So, more on this... Like an eejit I (kinda sorta) half-believed the "current turnaround times" posted on the passport office's website which, if accurate, would have allowed us travel with our newborn ~1 month later 😇 Spoiler: the times were not accurate, and we did not make our trip!

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

My own passport *renewals* have been fast, even when living in the US -- but it's been over three weeks now without any updates on a first passport application for my baby, born in Switzerland. We've just had to cancel our holiday. The consent form, in particular, is just farcical security theatre.

20 Aug

Final (hopefully) update, though I have *many* more thoughts on this... Monday: our case is forwarded to the mission Tuesday: out witness is finally called Wednesday: passport is printed Thursday (today): passport's in the mail, with a tracking number 26 working days, or just over 5 weeks 😳

24 Aug

Still working on those thoughts but, this morning, after ~7 weeks, my son's passport finally arrived in this morning's post 🛂 (still waiting for the return of the important original documents I included with his application)

Trevor Johnston reposted

Green Collective

@greencollective.io

24 Aug

🚨 A record for utility-scale solar on the island of Ireland: 1.4GW at 11.45am, roughly 30% of electricity demand at the time ☀️ This new all-island record was driven by 1301MW of solar in the ROI -- also a new all-time high there, and equal at the time to roughly 34% of ROI demand. ☘️ ⚡️ 🥇

24 Aug

Quick, delicious clear-the-fridge dinner in this Irish-Chinese household: baked beans on frozen scallion pancakes 😋 (beans enriched with slices of home-made sausage bought, on the honour system, from a fridge in some farmer's field -- we live in Switzerland 🏔️)

18 Aug

The other day, I mentioned the wait to obtain my son's Irish passport to a German friend of mine. The face on him when I said it's now been over a *month* without *any* update: baffled, bewildered -- and, I suspect, vindication that he (also) chose to settle in Switzerland over Ireland.

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

13 Aug

Call #3. Afternoon. Short hold. New verification: mother's maiden name...um, what? Since the estimated date has passed, tries to find out more. Wait. Frostier. Can only tell me it's still processing. Call back Monday when they might have an update. Sorry, I'll be calling every day. Didn't like that!

18 Aug

Call #4. Again with the maiden name. Again less friendly after examining my file. Still "in processing" -- which evidently means *not being processed*. Basically told me to stop calling every day, it won't be processed any faster. Perhaps not..but that's not why I call.

18 Aug

10+ weeks of solid heatwaves here in Zurich (forget about heatwave #1, #2, etc. -- we've had no more than a few days relief since May) are *finally* ending and...*boom*, literally the next day: allergy season 🤧

12 Aug

Very pleasantly surprised to see *such* a clear dip in the data, despite the eclipse occurring so close to sunset! (fortuitously, I did some work recently to improve the frequency and reliability of our EirGrid scraper which certainly came in handy tonight!)

Green Collective@greencollective.io

🚨 Irish solar generation dipped noticeably during the partial solar eclipse earlier this evening, bottoming out at just 8MW. Overlaying today's generation with yesterday's, we see a clear notch around 7pm when the eclipse was at its greatest 🌑 ⚡️ #SolarEclipse #SpeirGorm

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

11 Aug

Call #1. No hold. "Background work is done but it hasn't gone through to a processor" -- but I know they haven't tried to contact our witness. They can see that a prominent TD was in touch. No sympathy for us having missed our trip. Added a new travel date to our file. Brusque, at best.

12 Aug

Call #2. There's a log of every interaction! Yesterday's agent "passed it on". It'll take a couple of days for someone to examine it but there's a good chance we won't miss our *next* trip. Ultimately, I know little more -- but have some indication not everybody there hates their job. Night and day.

Trevor Johnston reposted

Green Collective

@greencollective.io

12 Aug

Time for a little round-up of our July reporting... 🧵 First, the basics: how much of electricity demand each source (wind, solar, gas, etc.) meet? 🍃 ☀️ 🌊 🗻 🔋 🏭️ 🔥 bsky.app/profile/gree...

Green Collective@greencollective.io

How July's electricity demand was met on the island of Ireland: 🌱 32.2% Renewables • Wind: 23.2% 💨 • Solar: 8.4% ☀️ • Biomass: 0.4% | Hydro: 0.2% 🔥 46.5% Fossil Fuels • Gas: 46% ⛽️ • Waste: 0.3% | Oil: 0.1% 🔋 1.4% Storage (0.9% Pumped Hydro, 0.5% Battery) ⚡️➡️ 19.8% Net Imports

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

Anyway, I just checked the online tracker for about the seven millionth time -- with the long-promised issuing date currently whooshing past, I'll be calling the passport office every single damn morning to see just what the hell is going on. Lots more to come on this thread! 🔥

11 Aug

As of this morning, the online tracker tells me my son's passport application is still being processed (that's >1 month now) and should be issued...yesterday 🤦

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

BTW, to be clear: I *hate* the idea of trying to "fast track" our application. We have no family emergency, and are not in any danger -- many others need it more. However, it seems this is the game. You should be furious your elected representatives need to devote any time to such basic statecraft.

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

Partly on a lark, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of concern for our *other* planned trips, I took up @oliver.ie on his kind offer to try to "fast track" our application. No results yet *but* it's amazing to learn that -- after four weeks -- *our application hasn't even been opened yet* 😮

irishexaminer.com'World class' service issues more than half a million Irish passports so far this yearCounties Dublin, Cork, and Antrim recorded the highest number of passports issued, with 93,223, 35,257, and 17,986 passports issued respectively

So, it's an unfortunate coincidence for me that the passport office is in the news today crowing about having issued 500,000 passports in the first half of 2026 on the very day my son's passport was supposed to be issued -- how many are stuck in processing? 📄 www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster...

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

My past experiences with them were good, too, so I was inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt -- but the key difference here is *my son was born abroad*. This turns out to be a whole different kettle of fish: look closer at the replies to that thread, above, to spot a few other dissenters.

More fool me: I've had nothing but poor experiences as an Irish person abroad, most recently while ordering a copy of my birth cert which turned into the two month-long farce detailed below (yes, I am regretting now those kudos for the passport office). bsky.app/profile/beer...

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

People rightly laud the passport office but for a more representative sample of Irish bureaucracy on the internet, I present to you the official website for ordering an Irish birth certificate. Wash your hands! 🦠 (I've emailed the GRO instead -- quaint, but they seem active)

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

Part of the reason I thought we had a chance is the aura surrounding the Irish passport office -- just skim the replies to this thread and you'll see it's considered an oasis of competence in the Irish civil service, with numerous folks reporting near next-day service. bsky.app/profile/ocea...

This post is unavailable.

G-g-g-galway!

Green Collective@greencollective.io

Galway reaching #1 for July renewable power is even remarkable given that ~20% of its wind energy was dispatched down during the month — far more than in the usual leaders of Cork and Kerry 🍃 Another driver? The new solar plant at Ballymoneen, which notably saw no dispatch down all month long ☀️

9 Aug

"Trevor, stop trying to make 'green corridor' happen!"

Green Collective@greencollective.io

Solar completely upended our county rankings in July to make Galway #1 and Meath #2 renewable energy producers for the first time ☀️ With Offaly at #4, our map below highlights an emerging green corridor of renewable production stretching from the east to west coasts 📍

31 July

No need to wait weeks and weeks -- whether hail, rain, sleet or snow, Swiss National Day or even *a new flipping baby in the house* @greencollective.io newsletter subscribers get their news on the first of each and every month 😆

Green Collective@greencollective.io

So far this year, the grid's having its greenest summer in recent memory. How well did we do in July? In the next edition of "Irish Grid Monthly" we'll be covering: ⚡️ datacentre demand ⚡️ carbon emissions ⚡️ curtailment and transmission constraints Sign up today to receive your copy!

23 June

I'm a ~happy Wise user but they've started spamming me about savings and investments for kids and clearly I've not been clicking "Deny all cookies" (and the like) often enough.

25 May

This unit-level analysis of dispatch down was my work focus towards the end of the pre-baby times and...it is just incredibly satisfying to see the near-perfect bell curves produced by stacking metered generation, curtailment, and constraints 🎯

Green Collective@greencollective.io

Ireland saw exceptionally strong solar generation over the weekend as a heat dome descended over Europe. The charts below illustrate not-insignificant dispatch down, with transmission constraints dominating in Northern Ireland and significant curtailment in the east and south coasts.

25 May

Genuinely can't remember the last dealings I had in Ireland which ended without me telling them how to do their job 😆 (this was *such* an interesting call, e.g. the GRO generally doesn't forward tracking numbers for registered post...like, what do you think registered post is for, exactly?)

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

Latest: someone from the GRO called me this morning to tell me my birth cert was returned to them, possibly because of insufficient postage. A sum of 16 EUR was mentioned which, after 30 seconds on An Post's website, tells me is insufficient for registered post from Ireland to Switzerland (17 EUR) 🤦‍♂️

24 May

A *very* late daily report owing to a restless baby the night before, ongoing database annoyances, and one-damn-typo yesterday morning which really spun out of control 😴

Green Collective@greencollective.io

Renewable generation and discharging storage equalled 46% of yesterday's electricity demand, with a peak of 61% at 00:15. Fossil fuel generation (mostly gas) equalled 38% of demand. 0% of generation was exported, 15% of demand was met by imports.

rte.ieElectricity emissions fall for third consecutive yearGreenhouse gas emissions from electricity in Ireland fell by almost 9% last year, the third consecutive year that electricity emissions have fallen.

24 May

Aaaaand, right on cue... (I can't be too mad, as -- hooray! -- @greencollective.io is cited in the actual report which, FWIW, I entirely agree with -- oddly enough, though, it's *not* for our 2025 emissions estimate) www.rte.ie/news/2026/05...

Trevor Johnston@beerwithsubtitles.net

*mentally steels himself for this to get literally no wider attention until, say, June 2026 when the Irish EPA (or a similar organisation - who do great work, but at very different speeds than we're used to) put out a press release* 🤷‍♂️ Our 500+ newsletter subscribers seem to appreciate it, though!

24 May

And the report itself, from @ccacireland.bsky.social: bsky.app/profile/ccac...

Climate Change Advisory Council Ireland@ccacireland.bsky.social

Today we published our Electricity Sectoral Review. It finds that limited renewable rollout and grid constraints are leaving Ireland unnecessarily dependent on imported fossil fuels and exposed to global energy shocks. Read the Review at: shorturl.at/TnvLU

11 May

Can we book the wind farm developer for Tommy's show? The whole idea is he knows nothing about his guests.

John Gibbons 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@thinkorswim.bsky.social

Another triumph for the NIMBYS…this offshore wind farm would have powered 350,000 homes, but no, we’d rather burn the world down with foreign oil, gas. RTÉ chatshow host Tommy Tiernan among the objectors. Well done, Tommy, as long as you’re ok. Joke’s on the rest of us.

11 May

More seriously: A pet peeve of mine is articles like this that don't link to the objections. I spent a little while searching and -- for various spurious reasons -- they're gone! It's almost like you can object all you want without any consequences.

28 Apr

Irish mother searching for something to say about the newborn: "he is getting big" HE'S SIX DAYS OLD