Energy

Opinion: Ireland’s energy system is fundamentally broken and needs a radical overhaul

An urgent overhaul of how the state incentivises new power plants is needed, writes the chief executive of the Electricity Association of Ireland

As far back as 2019, Eirgrid has estimated that there wouldn’t be adequate generation capacity to meet demand from 2026 or earlier, if older power plants closed ahead of 2025. Picture: iStock

The Irish state has a problem. At the heart of our target to halve our overall carbon emissions by 2030 is a plan to massively decarbonise the country’s energy system.

Clean energy powering homes, small businesses, heavy industry and transport is absolutely vital to reducing Ireland’s carbon emissions by more than 50 per cent by the end of this decade.

However, continuously expanding electricity demand and the prospect of further system alerts on the power ...