Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 October 2019
210. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the degree to which non-fossil fuel generated electricity will become available to the national grid over the next five years; the extent to which this will affect carbon reduction levels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42557/19]
Amharc ar fhreagra215. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount of electricity generated from oil, coal, gas, biomass, solar, wind or wave generation; the extent to which this is expected to change within the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42564/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 210 and 215 together.
The Government's Climate Action Plan sets out the roadmap to increasing the overall share of renewable electricity generation to 70% of demand by 2030. This is a significant increase from the current level of 30%. The Climate Action Plan provides for the early and complete phase-out of the highest CO2 intensity fossil fuels in the electricity sector, coal by 2025 and peat by 2028 leading to a reduction of 7-8Mt of CO2 emissions by 2030.
The specific trajectory of renewable electricity out to 2030 will be set out in Ireland's National Energy and Climate Plan which is due to be finalised by the end of 2019.
Regarding the current fuel mix, I refer the Deputy to the statistics published by Eirgrid which shows the fuel mix for electricity generation in Ireland. They can be found on Eirgrid website at http://www.eirgridgroup.com/site-files/library/EirGrid/Fuel20Mix.jpg.
This generation mix is expected to change with the planned increase of renewables between now and 2030, further detail on which can be found in EirGrid's recently published All Island Generation Capacity Statement 2019-2028, which can be found on EirGrid's website at: http://www.eirgridgroup.com/site-files/library/EirGrid/EirGrid-Group-All-Island-Generation-Capacity-Statement-2019-2028.pdf.
