Ireland

Government-run Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is tendering for the provision of technical and advisory support services for its grant programs aimed at organizations in Ireland planning to decarbonize. The tender follows a report by the SEAI that showed Ireland has a limited market for industrial heat pumps and called for greater outreach and support for businesses to install the technology.

March 2025 was a record month for solar generation on Ireland’s electricity grid, according to provisional real-time data from the country’s transmission systems operator EirGrid. Solar accounted for 2.8% of the country’s total electricity generation during March.

The Greenlink Interconnector comprises two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables reaching across the Irish Sea connecting the grids of Ireland and the United Kingdom at the Great Island substation in County Wexford and Pembroke substation in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Developer Shannon LNG has obtained permission from the Irish planning authorities for a 600 MW regasification unit and a 120 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in County Kerry. It is unclear when the plant will be built. Renewable energy advocates and opposition politicians are calling on the state to overturn the permit, citing Shannon LNG’s separate plans to construct a controversial LNG terminal near the gas plant.

Northern Ireland turned down 16.9% of its solar in 2024, up from 7.9% in 2023.

According to data from a newly launched tracker tool by Kilowatt.ie for small-scale solar in Ireland, capacity has grown from 20 MW in 2019 to 500 MW currently. Growth has surged since 2022, thanks to policy changes.

The Irish government is appealing to schools to apply for the second round of its solar for schools program before the March 7 deadline. More than 750 schools have been approved for funding in this phase to date.

The Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland’s (SEAI) statistics from the first nine months of 2024 show new applications for the Solar PV retrofit scheme are steadily increasing following a slump. However, this flurry of application activity may be influenced by an impending grant reduction effective from Jan. 1, 2025.

Bord Gáis has purchased County Cork, Ireland-based Swyft Energy for an undisclosed sum to help it meet its target of 10,000 solar PV installations over the next five years.

New data from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) says there is no scenario in which Ireland will meet its 2030 solar deployment capacity of 8 GW. With existing measures in place, the reality would be more like 5 GW, the government-run group estimates.