Eire backside of EU desk to be used of renewables final yr

IRELAND RANKED BOTTOM among the many EU 27 for its share of vitality consumption coming from renewable sources final yr.

In 2022, 13.1% of Eire’s vitality consumption got here from renewable sources, in response to the most recent figures from Eurostat.

This was barely under Malta’s price of 13.4% and Belgium on 13.7%.

Topping the checklist was Sweden, on 66%, significantly larger than second-placed Finland on 47.8%.

It means Eire is one among 17 nations under the EU common of 23%, with France, Spain, Germany, and Italy among the many different EU nations to fall under the common.

Share of vitality from renewable sources in 2022 (%):

🇸🇪 66
🇫🇮 47.8
🇱🇻 43.3
🇩🇰 41.6
🇪🇪 38.5
🇵🇹 34.7
🇦🇹 33.7
🇱🇹 29.6
🇭🇷 29.3
🇷🇴 24.1
🇪🇺 23
🇸🇮 22.9
🇬🇷 22.7
🇪🇸 22.1
🇩🇪 20.8
🇫🇷 20.2
🇨🇾 19.4
🇧🇬 19.1
🇮🇹 19
🇨🇿 18.2
🇸🇰 17.5
🇵🇱 16.9
🇭🇺 15.2
🇳🇱 15
🇱🇺 14.3
🇧🇪 13.7
🇲🇹 13.4
🇮🇪 13.1

— European Fee (@EU_Commission) December 28, 2023

Whereas Eire fared barely higher final yr than it did in 2021, when 12.4% of vitality utilization got here from renewable sources, its significantly lesser than in 2020 when the determine was 16.2%.

Underneath the primary EU Renewable Vitality Directive, which is a authorized framework for the event of fresh vitality throughout all sectors of the EU economic system, there was a goal of no less than 16% of gross last vitality consumption to come back from renewable sources by 2020.

Eire’s goal for the tip of this decade is 34.1%, and it’s seemingly that this goal will likely be elevated within the coming years.

The Sustainable Vitality Authority of Eire (SEAI) in its 2023 Vitality in Eire report described vitality developments this yr and final yr as “sobering”.

“Whereas the roll-out of electrical warmth pumps signifies that we’ve got by no means seen extra renewable vitality utilized in Irish properties, we nonetheless have 94% of residence heating coming from fossil fuels,” mentioned the foreword to the report.

The report famous that final yr, 85.8% of Eire’s major vitality requirement got here from fossil fuels, and the entire vitality demand final yr was 4.7% larger than in 2021.

Eire additionally imported 81.6% of its complete major vitality requirement final yr in response to the SEAI.

For comparability, the common vitality import dependency of all EU member states in 2020 was 57.5%.