SEAI’s Energy in Ireland 2024 report provides a definitive record on the supply, transformation, and end-user demand of energy in Ireland up to 2023, and provisional data from 2024.
In 2023, Ireland reached its lowest energy related emissions in over 30 years, with Ireland’s energy related emissions falling for seven of the last ten years. The data also shows achievement of our highest proportion of renewables in our energy mix since records began, with a record year for energy from wind generation and large-scale solar farms.
Ireland’s total primary energy requirements (TPER) in 2023 was down 1.8% on the previous year. TPER is the amount of ‘raw’ energy that Ireland needs to satisfy end-user demand across the economy. Primary energy includes all the energy that goes directly to end-users, as well as crude oil that is first processed in Ireland into oil-products, like diesel and petrol used on our roads, and the gas and coal fed into power plants to generate electricity.
In absolute terms, Ireland’s 2023 total primary energy requirement (164 TWh) was below that from 20 years ago (170 TWh), but above that from 10 years ago (155 TWh), with intervening periods of growth and decline. Nevertheless, the mix of fuels and energy types in primary energy has evolved significantly during this time. The broad trend has been the growth of renewables, with increased natural gas displacing and/or supplementing oil, coal and peat demand.
Despite the meaningful increase of renewables in the national energy mix, fossil fuels still dominate Ireland’s primary energy supply. Fossil fuels accounted for 83% of the total primary energy requirement in 2023. However, as a long-term trend, the relative contribution of fossil fuel is falling, down from 91% in 2013, and 98% in 2003.
Ireland’s gross electricity supply in 2023 was 35 TWh. Gross electricity supply includes all electricity generation by utility-scale power plants as well as all micro-to-small scale electricity generation, including rooftop solar PV. Gross supply includes the-net import of electricity across international interconnectors but excludes the transmission and distribution losses associated with moving electricity across the national grid, and the cycle-losses incurred from energy storage, i.e. pumped or battery-storage.
In 2023, 44.3% of Ireland’s gross electricity supply came from natural gas, followed by 33.7% from wind generation, and 9.5% from the net-import of electricity from Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Combined these three sources accounted for 87.5% of Ireland’s electricity supply. In total, fossil fuel generation accounted for 48.9% of the electricity supply, with renewable generation accounting for 40.7% of electricity supply. Other sources, consisting of net-imports and generation from non-renewable wastes, accounted for the remaining 10.4% of supply in 2023.
On a percentage basis, Ireland’s electricity supply has never had less fossil fuel generation or used more net imported electricity. 2023 was the first year in which fossil fuel generation accounted for less than half of Ireland’s gross electricity supply.
Ireland used 7.5% more renewable energy in 2023 than in 2022. This net increase came from broad increases in the use of biodiesel, solar PV, wind generation, hydro-electric generation, ambient heat capture from heat pumps, bioethanol, and renewable wastes. The largest individual increase in renewable energy use came from higher use of biodiesel, driven by increased biofuel blending into road diesel. The second largest individual increase came from solar PV, driven by the connection of new utility-scale solar-farms to the national grid in late-2022 and early-2023.
Ireland’s renewable energy share, and that of all EU member states, is calculated and monitored by the European Commission under different iterations of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The renewable energy share of EU member states is monitored through four key metrics:
The methodology for calculating the four RES results and setting their targets, which can include applying multipliers, limits, normalisations, and sustainability-checks on specific energy sub-products, is specified through the relevant iteration of the Directive for a given year. Ireland’s RES-overall targets out to 2030 are specified in the National Energy Climate Plan (NECP), prepared under the EU Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union, RED-II and RED-III. In addition to a ‘baseline’ RES-Overall target of 16% in all years to 2030, Ireland has a series of reference points for specific milestone years:
In 2023, Ireland’s RES-Overall result was 15.3%, up from 13.1% in 2022. Ireland’s RES-overall result in 2023 was the highest achieved to date without the use of statistical transfers. However, the overall result in 2023 remains below Ireland’s baseline target of 16%, and below the indicative trajectory set by the milestone years reference points.
End-user energy demand in Ireland increased by 0.8% in 2023. This net-increase in energy demand came from increased direct demand for oil, electricity, renewables, and non-renewable waste (NRW), coupled with decreased demand for natural gas, coal, and peat.
In 2023, 141 TWh of energy was directly consumed by end-users in the Irish economy. Over half (56%) of all energy consumed was oil products, mainly petrol, diesel, and heating oils. Electricity accounted for just under a quarter (22.4%) of energy consumption in 2023. Coal and peat each accounted for 1.2% of Ireland’s energy consumption in 2023.
Ireland experienced increased energy demand from the transport and commercial service sectors in 2023. Coupled with decreased energy demand from the residential, industry, agriculture-and-fisheries, and public service sectors. Energy demand for transport increased by 4.5% in 2023, while energy demand from the commercial service sector increased by 7%.
The transport sector remains the largest consumer of energy and accounted for 43% of all end-user energy demand in 2023. Energy consumption in the residential sector accounted for a further 21% of demand, followed by the industry sector with 17%. Combined, the transport and residential sectors account for almost two-thirds of all end-user energy demand.
Demand for transport energy increased by 4.5% on 2022 levels. The net-increase in transport energy demand was mainly led by increases in fuel use for international aviation and private car use.
Private cars remain the largest consumer of transport energy and accounted for 40% of all transport energy demand in 2023. The second largest transport sub-sector is aviation, which accounted for 22% of transport energy demand. In total, road transport accounted for just over three-quarters of all transport demand. Sea and rail accounted for 1.8% and 0.8% of transport energy demand in 2023, respectively.
Over half (57%) of transport energy demand in 2023 came from fossil-based diesel. The second largest source of transport demand came from jet kerosene, which accounted for over one-fifth (22%) of transport energy demand. Ireland consumes over 50% more jet kerosene than it does petrol, which accounted for 14% of transport demand in 2023. Electricity accounted for 0.5% of Ireland’s transport energy demand in 2023. Overall, 94.0% of Ireland’s transport energy came from fossil fuels in 2023.
Electricity accounted for just over 22% of Ireland’s energy demand in 2023, with just over 40% of that electricity coming from renewable sources. Renewable electricity is by far the largest vector of renewable energy into Ireland’s homes, offices, and businesses.
Electricity demand in Ireland rose by 1.24 TWh in 2023. This net-increase was strongly led by a 1.15 TWh increase in demand from the commercial services sector, which includes data centres. While total electricity demand increased by 4.1% in 2023, electricity demand from the commercial services sector increased by 9.7%. Smaller increases in demand were also observed in the transport, industry, and public service sectors, coupled with decreases in the residential and agriculture-and-fisheries sectors.
End-user electricity demand in 2023 was 31.6 TWh. The commercial services sector continues to lead the economy’s demand for electricity, accounting for 41.2% in 2023. The residential sector accounted for just over one-quarter (25.6%) of electricity demand, followed by the industry sector with 21.2%. In 2023, 1.2% of Ireland’s electricity demand came from the transport sector, from electric vehicles, and Dublin’s LUAS and DART commuter services.
Ireland’s demand for electricity has grown every year for the last 10 years. The dominant driver of this long-term increased demand has been the commercial services sector. Since 2013, electricity demand from the commercial services sector has increased by 79.1%. By way of comparison, across the same 10-year period, residential demand for electricity has increased by just 1.7%, and industry demand has increased by 6.7%.
The key driver of increased electricity demand in the commercial services sector has been Ireland’s data centres. Data published by the CSO shows that electricity demand from data centres has increased by 412% since 2015, which is the first year for which the CSO has published data-centre specific demand. In 2023, data centres accounted for just over one-fifth (20.1%) of all electricity demand in Ireland. For reference, when it announced a new scheme for rating the sustainability of data centres in 2024, the European Commission noted that data centres accounted for approximately 3% of the EU’s electricity demand.
Outside of data centres, the combined net-demand for electricity from all other sectors of the Irish economy has been relatively constant. Outside of data centres, Ireland’s demand for electricity has only grown by 2.8% since 2015. Data centres are responsible for 88.2% of the increased electricity demand observed in the Irish economy since 2015.
2023 was the third year in a row in which residential energy demand has fallen, reducing to levels last observed in 1998. Residential demand for the three key energy products of oil, electricity, and natural gas were all down in 2023, compared to 2020 levels. Oil demand was down 25.1%, electricity demand was down 7.0%, and gas demand was down 21.2%.
The observed reduction in residential energy demand in the last few years has likely been driven by multiple competing factors - high energy prices, weather effects, behavioural effects such as the post-COVID shift of return-to-office after an extended period of work-from-home, the impact of new builds and home energy upgrades on heating efficiency and increases in Ireland’s population.
Decoupling the weighted effect of these different drivers on residential heat demand is extremely challenging. However, in terms of a high-level qualitative explanation, two factors are likely to have played a key role in the observed reduction in residential energy demand:
The above focuses on the year 2023. For more recent data, please see the Energy Statistics section of the SEAI website.
To help policymakers, analysts, researchers, and the public better understand Ireland’s energy data, SEAI is expanding its use of data visualisations and interactive dashboards. In 2023 SEAI launched new interactive graphics and dashboards that allow users to explore monthly updates on energy delivery; quarterly updates on energy and fuel costs; and geographical analysis, comparing Ireland to other EU countries, and zooming down to the local authority level within Ireland.
For provisional monthly energy data, please visit SEAI’s website. Insights from provisional monthly data are best regarded as useful early indications of shifts and trends in energy that will later be more fully quantified and verified by definitive annual data. These trends in the monthly data can often be identified just a few weeks after the fact, providing timelier insights.
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