IRELAND RANKED BOTTOM among the EU 27 for its share of energy consumption coming from renewable sources last year.

In 2022, 13.1% of Ireland’s energy consumption came from renewable sources, according to the latest figures from Eurostat.

This was slightly below Malta’s rate of 13.4% and Belgium on 13.7%.

Topping the list was Sweden, on 66%, considerably higher than second-placed Finland on 47.8%.

It means Ireland is one of 17 nations below the EU average of 23%, with France, Spain, Germany, and Italy among the other EU nations to fall below the average.

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

While Ireland fared slightly better last year than it did in 2021, when 12.4% of energy usage came from renewable sources, its considerably lesser than in 2020 when the figure was 16.2%.

Under the first EU Renewable Energy Directive, which is a legal framework for the development of clean energy across all sectors of the EU economy, there was a target of at least 16% of gross final energy consumption to come from renewable sources by 2020.

Ireland’s target for the end of this decade is 34.1%, and it is likely that this target will be increased in the coming years.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) in its 2023 Energy in Ireland report described energy trends this year and last year as “sobering”.

“While the roll-out of electric heat pumps means that we have never seen more renewable energy used in Irish homes, we still have 94% of home heating coming from fossil fuels,” said the foreword to the report.

The report noted that last year, 85.8% of Ireland’s primary energy requirement came from fossil fuels, and the total energy demand last year was 4.7% higher than in 2021.

Ireland also imported 81.6% of its total primary energy requirement last year according to the SEAI.

For comparison, the average energy import dependency of all EU member states in 2020 was 57.5%.