Ireland bids for sustainable energy leadership
Ireland bids for sustainable energy leadership
Ireland should become a world leader in sustainable energy by 2020, the government has said in an energy green paper. The paper outlines a series of actions to develop clean coal technology, biomass energy, renewable electricity and energy efficiency.
Launching the green paper, Energy Minister Noel Dempsey said he wanted to make Ireland a “renewable energy island”. He said: “Ireland will be a fully sustainable, secure, efficient, affordable and competitive energy market, supporting environmental, economic and social policy objectives”. The plan proposes to boost energy efficiency by a total of 20 per cent by 2020,in line with the objective set out by the European commission at EU level last year.
It also sets a goal of increasing the share of renewables in electricity consumption to 30 per cent by 2020, which implies a quadrupling of renewables generation capacity and compares with a share of only 5 per cent in 2004. Earlier this year the government raised its target for renewables' share of electricity in 2010 from 13.2 per cent to 15 per cent. Bioenergy is expected to play a key role. The plan promises targets for biofuels for the period up to 2020 and further research on second generation biofuels. Other proposals in this area include co-firing up to 30 per cent biomass at the three existing peat stations to extend the availability of peat in the energy mix beyond 2020.
