Environment, Climate and Communications | On and Offshore electricity reliance

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the extent to which electricity generation now relies on onshore and offshore generation methods; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY
There is currently only one offshore wind farm operating in Ireland, Arklow Bank and it has an installed capacity of 25.2 MW. As a result, the contribution of offshore wind is currently relatively small and is reported together with the onshore wind figures.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland reports annually on total electricity generated and electricity generated by wind in its Energy in Ireland publication, the latest edition available here: https://www.seai.ie/data-and-insights/seai-statistics/key-publications/energy-in-ireland/.

The Energy in Ireland report is updated on an annual basis and published in the last quarter of the year. The report is published one year in arrears, therefore official figures for 2021 will be available in  the report to be published in December of this year.

In 2020, wind generation accounted for 36.1% of all electricity generated in Ireland. Provisional estimates provided to my Department by EirGrid indicate that approximately 31GWh of electricity was generated in Ireland in 2021, of which approximately 35% was generated from renewable sources. The majority of renewable electricity was generated from wind, which provided approximately 31% of total electricity generated.