Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 5 April 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
Carbon and Energy within the Construction Industry: Discussion
Mr. Declan Meally:
I shall respond to the three aspects of the question on best practice. Across the board, from an energy point of view, we are looking at renewables and energy efficiency. In terms of how we fair with that and, in terms of renewables, there is renewable heat and renewable electricity. On renewable electricity, we are at an average of over 40% in terms of the amount of energy that is generated from electricity. That is one of the highest in the world. Denmark and one or two other countries, in terms of where they are going, on average are higher but we are still well up there in terms of our rate of renewable electricity. Our target by 2030 is to get to 80% on average every day. On a day with high winds over 80% of our electricity is generated from wind and many people realise that. We are well up there on the energy renewable side for renewable electricity. We do not do as well with renewable heat, and the rate is quite low. Other countries such as Denmark and the Scandinavian countries have district heating whereby they feed in biomass or woodchips so they have local supplies. That technology is a big opportunity for this country in terms of retrofitting, and putting into larger cities and towns the opportunity for district heating, the heating of public buildings and using heating networks. That is one opportunity.
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