Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 March 2024
157. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the percentage of Ireland’s electricity produced from renewable sources; if this is in line with expectations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11498/24]
View answerIreland has made considerable progress in decarbonising our electricity sector over the last decade, with a major reason for this being the construction of renewable generation sources and their successful integration onto the electricity grid.
2023 was another successful year for renewable electricity in Ireland. According to figures published by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) renewable sources accounted for an average of 46.1% of the electricity generated in Ireland in 2023, an increase of over 9% on the 2022 figure.
Ireland now has over 6 GW of renewable electricity generation capacity. Wind, particularly onshore, remains our largest source of renewable electricity and accounted for 39% of all electricity generated in 2023. With approximately 4.8 GW of wind generation, Ireland is a world leader in levels of installed wind energy capacity per capita, as well as in the integration of variable renewable electricity onto the grid.
Solar generation is rapidly growing with over 1 GW now installed, which is an enormous increase on the previous year. Solar generation is highly complementary to wind generation and increased solar capacity will help Ireland to generate clean electricity all year round.
The recently published Climate Action Plan 2024 (CAP 24) reaffirms the ambitious targets of 9 GW of onshore wind capacity, 8 GW of solar capacity and at least 5 GW of offshore wind capacity connected to the grid by 2030 to support the achievement of the electricity sectoral emissions ceilings. This will require a major acceleration of renewable energy over the coming years.
