Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 June 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Use of Agricultural Land for Renewable Energy: ESB Networks

Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

There is no doubt it is a stretching target but it is the target for which we all are aiming. It is set out in the climate action plan. We have mirrored it in our own strategy and we are building the organisation and our contract partners with the aim of achieving it. There are many challenges but we are determined to do everything in our power to hit the target and to work with all our partners to deliver it. Achieving it requires a steady increase in projects year on year. I mentioned in my opening statement that we expect to get approximately 650 MW of large-scale projects connected this year. That number has to increase year on year out to 2030 for the targets to be achieved. Going back to Senator Daly's question about the amount of infrastructure that is needed, a step change is required to enable us to achieve the targets out to 2030. There is a huge body of work to be done. We need to grow our own workforce and our contract partners and supply chain to make those targets a reality.