Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Climate Action Plan 2023 (and 2024) seeks to transform Ireland into an international leader in the development and generation of high-quality renewable energy. The Plan includes a series of measures to support our renewables programme, including the accelerated delivery of onshore wind, solar, and offshore wind generation, through a competitive framework, where appropriate, to reach 80% of electricity demand being met by renewable sources by 2030. The energy targets for renewable electricity include:

• 9 GW of onshore wind,
• 8 GW of solar, and
• At least 5 GW of offshore wind.

Two key performance indicators for 2025 were also included:

• 6 GW of onshore wind, and
• Up to 5 GW of solar.

Ireland has made considerable progress in decarbonising our electricity sector and currently has over 6 GW of renewable generation. This is split between over 4.8 GW of onshore wind, over 1 GW of solar (over 400 MW of rooftop domestic and circa 600 MW of grid-scale), and the remainder coming from hydro, biomass, and other small sources of renewable generation.

Notwithstanding that CAP has not set storage targets, Ireland has seen tremendous progress in the deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS), with more than 700 MW of battery storage active at the end of 2023 and another 500 MW contracted to connect over the next five years.

A key measure in CAP23 was the establishment of an Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce, made up of senior officials from relevant Departments and State Bodies, to coordinate the fast-tracked and increased deployment of onshore renewable electricity generation, storage facilities, and supporting technologies and infrastructure.