CRU and EirGrid set the 2030-31 requirement at 6,914MW

EirGrid circulated information to industry in the week to 19 August putting the capacity requirement for the next T-4 auction at 6,914MW, covering the 12 months from September 2030. The comparable figure issued a year earlier for the 2028-29 delivery year was 7,100MW. The CRU determines the total capacity to be procured, while EirGrid and System Operator Northern Ireland run the auction.

The recalculation follows two occasions this summer when EirGrid called on one of the State’s four temporary emergency generators, in Dublin in June and at Tarbert during the eclipse on 12 August. Those units do not sell into the market and are to be decommissioned once sufficient commercial capacity is procured.

Quarter 1 emissions fell 0.8%, transport down 2.6%

The EPA published its quarterly greenhouse gas emissions indicator for Quarter 1 2026 on 18 August, showing total emissions down 0.8% on the same quarter of 2025. Transport fell 2.6%, or 72.1 kt CO₂eq, and electricity fell 2.2%, or 33.3 kt CO₂eq, on increased renewable generation and imports against a 4.2% rise in electricity demand. Agriculture rose 0.5% and industry 0.6%, while the other category fell 8.1% on the projected phase-out of fluorinated gases. This is the first quarterly read inside the second carbon budget period.

Supplier Capacity Charge rises 36% for the 2026-27 tariff year

The SEM Committee published its Tariffs and Charges Decision Paper for the 2026-27 tariff year (SEM-26-052), setting a 36% increase in the Supplier Capacity Charge, effective 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027. Smaller line items including the residual error volume payment and currency cost charges move down, though not by enough in absolute terms to offset the capacity market increase for parties managing large energy budgets on the island.

SSE lands the 355-tonne turbine for Tarbert

SSE confirmed on 20 August that the turbine for its 300MW Tarbert Next Generation Power Station in Co Kerry has been landed by specialist marine operation, shipped from Genoa to Foynes and brought ashore beside Tarbert Lighthouse. It is the largest single item delivered to the site to date and SSE’s first marine landing of heavy generation equipment at this scale in Ireland. The open cycle plant runs on hydrotreated vegetable oil from waste feedstocks, with the site future-proofed for hydrogen conversion, on capital investment of up to €300m. Completion remains scheduled for late 2027.

Quarter 2 delivered 18,787residential solar installs

ESB Networks quarterly connections data shows 18,787 solar PV micro-generation installs in Quarter 2 2026, against a previous quarterly peak of 13,337, taking cumulative connections to 198,061. The quarterly figure follows the 16,770 solar PV grants the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland paid in the first six months of the year, reported in No. 014, and sits alongside the 9.4% grid-scale solar share of the July fuel mix.

Two papers put first deployment no earlier than 2050

Analysis published on 22 August set out the sequence between the expected bill to lift the statutory ban, due late this year, and a first operating plant. Wide-ranging legislation on ownership, management and regulatory oversight would follow a national position, a process placed at least into late 2030 by reference to the two bills the Clare liquefied natural gas facility has required, after which a regulator would have to be established. A University College Dublin paper by Professor Andrew Keane and Muhammad Bah, neutral on whether Ireland should go nuclear, found it difficult to foresee deployment before 2050. International read-across, Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 was scheduled for four years and took 18.

Europe sold 14hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in the first half

Hydrogen Insight reported on 18 August that 14 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles were sold across Europe in the first half of 2026, down 64% year on year, while battery-electric heavy trucks moved further into commercial deployment. The EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation still requires hydrogen refuelling stations in major urban areas and at intervals of no more than 200km along the TEN-T core network by 2030, implying roughly 650 stations, and the European Commission is due to review it by the end of this year. Irish read-across, there is no hydrogen refuelling network here to reprice, so the exposure is to the shape of the review rather than to sunk cost.

An Iran-linked attack took a UK generator offline for fourdays

The UK government confirmed on 23 August that a cyber attack in July shut down a small-scale energy generator for four days, after The Sunday Telegraph first reported the incident and attributed it to hackers affiliated to the Iranian regime. Officials said the wider energy system was not put at risk and declined to identify the site, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero briefed energy company executives and wrote to companies with hardening advice. Irish read-across, Ireland draws roughly 12.5% of its electricity from Britain through interconnection, so GB generation resilience sits inside the Irish adequacy picture.