IRISH DEMAND FOR electricity increased last year driven largely by new grid connections for data centres, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has said.

Energy emissions fell by nearly 8% in 2023, a record pace for the sector – but still not fast enough to stay on track to avoid overshooting legally-binding carbon budgets.

The SEAI has published a report on Ireland’s Energy Balance for 2023 and a mid-year review of energy use in 2024.

In the first six months of 2024, emissions from the electricity sector reached their lowest level for decades. 

Renewable energy capacity increased in 2023, allowing Ireland to make progress on cutting its energy emissions, but total electricity usage rose due to new data centres.

The increase in electricity demand is outpacing the connection of new renewable energy sources, which poses a potential challenge to Ireland’s climate ambitions.

The SEAI’s Energy Balance report for 2023 shows that Ireland used 4.4% more electricity last year compared to the previous year. 

Of the extra 1.32 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity demand, 1.06 TWh came from data centres. Data centres accounted for 20% of Ireland’s electricity demand in 2023, while the residential sector, consisting of 1.9 million occupied dwellings, accounted for 25.5%, according to the SEAI.

Ireland set new national records last year for electricity generated through wind power (11.67 TWh) and solar power (0.65 TWh). There was a 96% increase (to 0.18 TWh) in the amount of electricity generated by the rooftop solar panels on Irish homes.

Transport emissions increased slightly, with fossil fuel reliance remaining over 90% and energy used for aviation reached a record high.

SEAI Director of Research and Policy Insights Margie McCarthy welcomed the finding of a “new ‘personal best’ for Ireland in terms of energy-related emissions reductions” but cautioned: “At the moment, we are falling far short of where we need to be.”

“Change is notably afoot. Now we need to turn ambition into action to meet our national climate obligations and avoid significant compliance costs against legally binding EU targets.”

In the first six months of 2024, the electricity sector’s emissions were down 17.2%, while transport emissions dropped 1.3%.

Residential emissions from gas in the first half of 2024 were up 5.1%, residential emissions from kerosene were up 5.6% and industry and service emissions from gas were up 7.9%. 

The drop in electricity emissions was driven mainly by increased use of imported electricity that reduced the use of fossil fuels in Ireland, the SEAI said, along with increased use of Irish renewables, with 10.2% more renewable electricity generated than in the same period last year.

Provisional 2024 data for transport shows that emissions may slightly fall.

However, overall, Ireland is on track to exceed its first carbon budget in 2025, the SEAI says.

This echoes previous warnings from the Environment Protection Agency and Climate Change Advisory Council.

“With the data we have to hand, it appears that we will marginally exceed the first carbon budget for electricity, leaving an already tight budget slightly reduced for the second period to 2030,” McCarthy said.

“The situation with transport will be very challenging as we will likely exceed the first transport sectoral ceiling by some considerable amount perhaps requiring a halving of annual transport emissions through the second period,” she said.

“The good news is that we already have the technical solutions to deliver on climate obligations. We just need to deploy them at sufficient scale and pace,” McCarthy said, adding that we need to focus on offshore wind, grid scale solar PV, and electricity grid development.

To tackle heat emissions, we need to eliminate oil and gas boilers, replacing them with electric heat pumps and building district heat networks in towns and cities, she advised.

Individuals also need to be supported to reduce their transport energy demand through the provision of reliable and safe public transport and better encouraging of walking and cycling, as well as supporting a shift to electric vehicles.

“Most importantly we need to win the hearts and minds of everyone in Ireland to motivate, empower and enable people to act. This can only happen if everyone is on board,” she said.