{"id":29354,"date":"2025-12-16T20:22:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/12\/16\/ireland-needs-to-break-link-with-fossil-fuels-seai-says\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T20:22:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:22:54","slug":"ireland-needs-to-break-link-with-fossil-fuels-seai-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/12\/16\/ireland-needs-to-break-link-with-fossil-fuels-seai-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland needs to break link with fossil fuels, SEAI says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A new report from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) says that although energy related emissions in Ireland have fallen by 16% since 2018 the country has not broken the link between economic growth and fossil fuel use in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n

The SEAI says Ireland needs to double down on decarbonisation, especially in transport, which is still 93% powered by fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Ireland is legally obliged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.<\/p>\n

SEAI Energy in Ireland 2025 report notes total energy-related emissions have fallen to the lowest level in over 30 years.<\/p>\n

This has been despite a 10% growth in the population, 18% growth in electricity demand, and strong growth in the economy.<\/p>\n

However, it warns this is not enough to achieve the 2030 targets.<\/p>\n

The average fall in emissions is just 2.7% per year but needs to be 5% to reach the target.<\/p>\n

Heat pumps <\/b><\/p>\n

The SEAI says the key levers for faster progress include more wind and solar, heat pumps, home energy upgrades, expanded public and active travel, district heating and a strengthened electricity grid.<\/p>\n

The report shows that heat pumps in Ireland delivered more renewable energy last year than all solar farms and rooftop solar panels combined.<\/p>\n

Greenhouse gas emissions from transport are down 5.3% compared with 2018.<\/p>\n

That is an average of 0.9% per year which is well below the reduction rate needed to stay on target.<\/p>\n

SEAI says a significant shift from private car use to active travel and public transport is needed, particularly for shorter journeys.<\/p>\n

A electric heat pump in use<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It notes that positive progress has been made in public and active transport infrastructure, with the rollout of cycleways, Local Link, Bus Connects, and the sign-off of DART+ and the Luas extension.<\/p>\n

It says this investment needs to continue with the delivery of further projects, including the long-awaited Metrolink.<\/p>\n

The biggest and fastest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions have been delivered by the electricity generation sector.<\/p>\n

The phasing out of peat, coal and significant volumes of gas-fired electricity, have all been made possible through increased renewable generation as well as an increase of almost 55% in net imports of electricity from the UK last year.<\/p>\n

The data shows that Ireland imported net 10% or more of its gross electricity supply in 23 of the 24 months between October 2023 and September 2025.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, net imports accounted for almost one quarter of Ireland’s utility-scale gross electricity supply.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, net imports accounted for more electricity supply than was generated by wind.<\/p>\n

The report highlights the rapidly growing impact of solar farms and rooftop solar panels which delivered a 70% increase in solar electricity last year.<\/p>\n

Overall, 41% of electricity now comes from wind, solar, and other renewables.<\/p>\n

The report highlights that by moving away from fossil fuels, Ireland is moving towards a more secure, healthier, more competitive economy and society.<\/p>\n

SEAI Chief Executive, William Walsh, said everything Ireland wants to achieve flows from the energy it uses, and today’s results show what is possible.<\/p>\n

“We’re making progress, and by accelerating delivery – in grid investment and offshore wind infrastructure in particular, we can do a lot more to secure affordable energy for homes and businesses across Ireland,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our National Retrofit Programme upgraded around 60,000 homes this year, making them warmer and more comfortable to live in, while also helping with energy bills,” he added.<\/p>\n

Data centres <\/b><\/p>\n

Ireland’s electricity demand has grown every year for the last decade, and data centres have been the key factor driving the extra demand.<\/p>\n

They have been responsible for 88.2% of the increase in electricity used in Ireland\u2019s between 2015 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Last year alone electricity usage by data centres was up 10%.<\/p>\n

They now account for 21.2% of all electricity demand in Ireland.<\/p>\n

This is a seven times greater proportion than the EU average, which according to the European Commission, is 3%.<\/p>\n

Without the growth in data centres, net electricity demand in Ireland would have been relatively constant, up only about 5% over the past nine years.<\/p>\n

Including the data centres however, the overall growth in annual electricity demand over the past nine years in Ireland has been about 27%.<\/p>\n

2015 was the first year for which the CSO publish metered electricity consumption of data centres.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) says that although energy related emissions in Ireland have fallen by 16% since 2018 the country has not broken the link between economic growth and fossil fuel use in a meaningful way. The SEAI says Ireland needs to double down on decarbonisation, especially in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}