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Electricity Generation

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 November 2019

Tuesday, 5 November 2019

Ceisteanna (867)

John Curran

Ceist:

867. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the degree to which electricity generation can depend on alternatives such as wind, solar and hydropower; the percentage of electricity being met by each of these means; his projections for the future in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44864/19]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

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 2018 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.

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