Ireland ranked last of the 27 EU countries last year for the proportion of its energy consumption from renewable sources.
According to the latest figures from Eurostat, 13.1% of Ireland’s energy consumption in 2022 came from renewable energy.
This was slightly lower than Malta’s 13.4% and Belgium’s 13.7%.
Topping the list is Sweden with 66%, well ahead of Finland in second place with 47.8%.
This means Ireland is one of 17 countries below the EU average of 23%, with France, Spain, Germany and Italy also below average among other EU countries.
Share of energy 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 Commission (@EU_Commission) December 28, 2023
Ireland fared slightly better than in 2021, with 12.4% of its energy use coming from renewable sources last year, but significantly lower than in 2020, when the figure was 16.2%.
The first EU Renewable Energy Directive, the legal framework for clean energy development across all sectors of the EU economy, set a goal for at least 16% of total final energy consumption to come from renewable sources by 2020. Ta.
Ireland’s target for the end of this decade is 34.1%, and this target is likely to increase in the coming years.
The Sustainable Energy Agency of Ireland (SEAI) described this year’s and last year’s energy trends as “sobering” in its 2023 Ireland Energy Report.
“The introduction of electric heat pumps means that less renewable energy is used in Irish homes than ever before, yet 94% of home heating still comes from fossil fuels,” the report foreword is written.
The report noted that 85.8% of Ireland’s primary energy demand last year came from fossil fuels, and total energy demand last year was 4.7% higher than in 2021.
According to SEAI, Ireland imported 81.6% of its total primary energy needs last year.
For comparison, the average energy import dependence for all EU member states in 2020 was 57.5%.
