Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The climate action plan sets challenging targets for installed generation capacity in 2030. This includes 9 GW of onshore wind, 8 GW of solar and at least 2 GW of additional gas-fired generation capacity. Ireland now has over 6 GW of renewable electricity generation capacity, with 46% of electricity generated in Ireland in 2023 being renewable.

I am informed by ESB Networks that the following volume of generation has been grid-connected since 2020 by fuel source and year. I will share a written copy of the table with Deputies and will now outline the following summary. Some 784 MW of onshore wind has been grid-connected since 2020; 654 MW of grid solar has been connected since 2020 and, for clarity, this excludes rooftop solar, which is growing at pace; and 718 MW of batteries have also been grid-connected in this time period. For gas-fired generation capacity, 243 MW has been grid-connected so far, with a further 433 MW due to be connected in the coming weeks. In total, this means over 2 GW of new generation capacity has been grid-connected since 2020, with a further substantial amount of generation capacity due to come online this year.

Ireland's net import of electricity accounted for 9.5% of electricity supply in 2023, which compares with 0.7% of electricity supply in 2022 and 4.8% in 2021. Ireland was a net exporter of electricity in 2020.

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