MaREI Podcast – Poetry of Renewable Energy

This episode of the MaREI Podcast is about renewable energy. It features a reading and discussion of a poem – Wind and Wave, by Derek Mahon – which explores renewable energy technologies of wind turbines and wave energy.

The podcast opens with a historical preamble on the long history of wind technologies, particularly windmills, which sets the scene for the entrance of its modern cousin: the wind turbine. The poem and the discussion of the poem switch between the human scale of wind blowing a musical instrument and the planetary scale of wind powering the electrification of our modern lives. The podcast features an interview with Brendan Tuohy, the chairperson of EirGrid (the electricity system operator in Ireland), who previously had the poem published in EirGrid’s annual report and who presents a perspective on the role of poetry in the energy transition.