Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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107. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the actions his Department is taking to transition our flexible electricity generation portfolio away from fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, to low-carbon alternatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30221/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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As outlined in the Programme for Government, this Government is committed to taking decisive action to radically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and to achieve a 51% reduction in emissions from 2018 to 2030, and to achieving net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

The 'Energy Security in Ireland to 2030' strategy set out a clear vision to move away from fossil fuels to an electricity-led energy system. Delivery of our ambitious renewable and electrification targets set out in the Climate Action Plan will be key in this regard. In particular, maximising offshore wind energy is a significant priority for Government, and the State has recently been accelerating policy in this area.

Since 2022 wind has accounted for approximately 40% of Ireland’s electricity demand each year (including 2025 to date) .

Ireland has over 7 GW of renewable generation capacity. Wind, particularly onshore, remains our largest source of renewable electricity, with over 5 GW now installed. Solar generation is rapidly growing with over 1.5 GW installed, which is a significant increase on the previous year. Solar generation is highly complementary to wind generation and increased solar capacity will help Ireland to generate clean electricity all year round

Latest figures from the SEAI show that Ireland's energy related emissions in 2024 were down 1.3% on 2023 and are at their lowest level in over 30 years with electricity sector emissions down 7.5%. Ireland removed peat fired electricity generation in 2023, and is on course to stop burning coal for electricity generation this summer.

Notwithstanding power generation decarbonisation objectives and increasing renewable electricity targets, the variable nature of some renewable technologies currently requires that dispatchable, typically fossil fuel, generation remains crucial for ensuring security of supply, as set out in the 2021 'Policy Statement on Security of Electricity Supply',

The Government has set a target of having at least 2GW of new, flexible, gas-fired generation by 2030 in our Climate Action Plans to ensure secure generation of electricity at time of low renewable output and/or high demand. This allows for the integration of a large volume of wind and solar electricity projects that displace the need to run fossil fuel plants for baseload, without compromising security of supply. In addition, increasing amounts of batteries, long duration storage, interconnector capacity and demand side response have also been procured in recent capacity market auctions which will lessen Ireland's dependence on fossil fuel imports in the coming years.

However, the variable nature of renewable technologies means flexible, gas-fired generation will remain crucial for system security and resilience for the coming years.