The west of Ireland is getting a bit of a hammering from Storm Brendan today, with many trees down and thousands of people in mainly rural areas without electricity. It’s going to be a busy week for utility repair crews. There had been high winds on Friday which had downed some trees and power lines – the picture above was taken on Saturday afternoon. It’s a pity that there aren’t more attractive incentives to equip rural dwellings with electricity self-generating capability (e.g. solar panels and batteries). That way, damaged power lines would not have such a impact.