| 02 | Energy news | Top story + 6 |
Top story · Policy Power sector White Paper begins, with a 2050 horizonMinister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien announced on Wednesday 29 July the commencement of a White Paper on Ireland’s power sector, covering electricity generation, transmission, distribution and regulation out to 2050. The work follows the International Energy Agency report Powering Ireland’s Energy Future, commissioned by DCEE in 2024, which identified the need for a unified cross-sectoral energy strategy supported by a security study on the electricity supply mix. DCEE says the White Paper will work within existing frameworks including the National Energy and Climate Plan, the Climate Action Plan and the National Energy Demand Strategy, governed through cross-departmental structures and an external advisory group drawn from the energy and enterprise sectors. Stakeholder engagement opened the same day. | EnergyView analysis Regulation is inside the scopeRegulation sits in the terms of reference. DCEE has defined the White Paper as covering generation, transmission, distribution and regulation, which puts market design on the same page as physical infrastructure for the first time since the 2015 White Paper, whose horizon ran only to 2030. Connection policy, dispatch-down treatment and route to market for storage and renewable gas are all regulatory questions, so a document that carries them can reach things secondary legislation alone cannot. The IEA study of 2024 is the anchor, having recommended a unified cross-sectoral strategy supported by a security assessment of the supply mix, and having put electricity demand on a path that could double. A 2050 horizon against a doubling demand curve is the arithmetic every submission should open with. Watch the membership of the external advisory group, which DCEE says will draw from energy and enterprise. Enterprise representation would signal that industrial competitiveness and demand-side cost sit inside the terms of reference rather than alongside them. |
| Policy DCEE consults on the wholesale gas provisions of the EU Gas DirectiveDCEE opened a consultation on Thursday 30 July on implementation of the wholesale gas provisions of Directive (EU) 2024/1788, the recast internal market directive covering renewable gas, natural gas and hydrogen. The directive sits alongside Regulation (EU) 2024/1789 in the EU Gas and Hydrogen Package and carries a member state transposition date of Wednesday 5 August 2026. Its scope takes in third-party access, network development planning, unbundling, and the treatment of hydrogen networks and low-carbon gases in the internal market. | Policy Climate Action Plan progress report records 10 of 74 legacy actions deliveredThe Department of the Taoiseach published the latest Climate Action Plan progress report on Wednesday 29 July, covering the first and second quarters of 2026 across the six highest-emitting sectors. Ten of 74 legacy actions carried from the 2023 to 2025 plans were delivered in the first half of the year, among them increased biofuel blend rates, publication of the second Circular Economy Strategy, completion of 200km of cycling infrastructure and publication of Land Use Review Phase 2. An update to Climate Action Plan 2025 is due from DCEE later this year. | Grid EirGrid enabled 86.8% of wind generation in the first half of 2026EirGrid brought 86.8% of available wind energy onto the system in the Republic in the first six months of 2026, with 13.2% dispatched down, and enabled 88.8% of all renewables including solar, with 11.2% dispatched down. Wind Energy Ireland analysis published on Tuesday 28 July put the all-island loss at 15%, equivalent to the annual consumption of roughly 667,000 homes. Irish wind farms set a new monthly generation record in June 2026, up close to 5% on the previous record set in June 2025, and wind has supplied more than a third of the country’s electricity year to date. EirGrid says the system can currently run with up to 75% instantaneous non-synchronous renewables and that work is under way to raise that to 95%. The two headline percentages differ because Wind Energy Ireland reports all-island, EirGrid the Republic alone. | Markets DCC Energy accepts a £5.75bn takeover led by KKRThe board of DCC Energy agreed on Monday 27 July to a £5.75bn offer, around €6.5bn, from a consortium of United States private equity firms including KKR, at a 24% premium to shareholders. DCC Energy spans liquid gas, fuels, biofuels and renewable energy solutions alongside a mobility division. Flogas, the group’s Irish supply arm, is the offtaker under the biomethane gas purchase agreement with College Group at Nobber, Co. Meath, covered in No. 012. | Heat Advisory Council puts the built environment at 12.5% of national emissionsEmissions from Irish homes fell an estimated 5% in 2025 and emissions from commercial and public buildings fell 3.5%, together accounting for around 12.5% of national greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Climate Change Advisory Council on Wednesday 29 July. The Council attributed part of the reduction to a warmer than normal winter and cautioned against reading it as structural. The EPA projects residential buildings to exceed the second sectoral emissions ceiling for 2026 to 2030 by around 5 Mt CO₂e, close to 22% above the legal limit. Retrofit applications rose 96% in the first quarter of 2026 year on year, following the enhanced grants introduced in January. | EVs CSO puts the electric share of the fleet at 4%, against 24.1% of new licencesThe CSO release Composition of Ireland’s Vehicle Fleet 2026, published on Tuesday 28 July, put electric vehicles at 4% of the entire fleet, a stock of 134,475 units, while EVs accounted for 24.1% of new private vehicles licensed between January and June 2026. Dublin, Cork, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and Galway hold 87,541 private EVs between them, 70% of the private EV fleet against 57.2% of the population. Across the EU-27 on 2024 data, EVs made up 2.2% of the passenger fleet. | Also worth knowing ● SEAI revised grant terms under the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat and the Heat Pump Installation Grant on Friday 31 July, with renewable heating systems attracting up to 40% of eligible costs banded by efficiency. SEAI ● Government appointed four ordinary members to the Climate Change Advisory Council on Thursday 30 July. gov.ie ● DCEE published the updated National Plan for Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Exposures on Wednesday 29 July, Ireland’s fourth such plan. gov.ie ● Minister O’Brien put the household saving from the North-South Interconnector at €120 a year on Thursday 30 July. Highland Radio ● Stream Bioenergy at Little Island, Cork featured in an Irish Times survey of the Irish bioeconomy on Thursday 30 July, alongside Bia Energy. Irish Times |
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