Last month’s heatwave helped to boost the amount of electricity coming from solar in July, according to EirGrid.
Despite that, the proportion of Ireland’s electricity supply coming from renewable sources only rose slightly year-on-year.
Provisional data from the operator and developer of the country’s electricity grid shows that grid-scale solar accounted for 9.4% of Ireland’s overall electricity mix last month.
That compares to 8.2% in June and 5.7% in July 2025.
The figure reflects power generated by commercial solar farms and would not include solar energy generated and sold back to the grid by residential customers.
However despite the rise in solar supply, the overall proportion of electricity coming from renewables only increased marginally in the month – from 32% in July 2025 to 32.3% last month.
That came as wind made up a smaller proportion of supply – falling from 24.1% in July of last year to 22.4% this July – while supply from ‘other renewables’ fell year-on-year, from 2.3% to 0.5%.
Gas continued to represent the biggest contributor to the country’s electricity needs, accounting for more than 43% of supply in the month. Though that is down from around 51% last year.
Nearly 24% of the country’s electricity needs were met by imports last month, compared to just over 15% in July 2025.
According to EirGrid, overall electricity demand stood at 2,744 GWh in July, down slightly on the 2,734 GWh used in the same month a year earlier.
