Ireland energy mix & electricity

In 2025, Ireland generated 31 TWh of electricity. That puts it in the same league as Slovakia. The biggest single contributor is natural gas with 48.4%; wind power adds 38% and solar power 4.8%.

Renewables supplied 48.1% of the electricity, which ranks Ireland 63rd of 158 countries. That is 14 points above the world average of 33.8%. It is also above the average for Europe (41.6%). That beats the EU-27 average of 47.7%. The carbon intensity of electricity is 257 g CO₂e/kWh; the global average is 458 g/kWh. That makes the grid comfortably cleaner than the global average. In the cleanest-grid ranking, Ireland is 55th of 158.

Over the past decade wind power added more generation than any other source (+5.1 TWh since 2015, plus 14.3 percentage points of share). Meanwhile coal lost the most ground, down 4.7 TWh. The net effect: renewables gained 19.8 percentage points of share since 2015. Total generation grew by 2.8 TWh over the same period. Carbon intensity dropped from 439 to 257 g/kWh, a 42% cut.

Coal is effectively gone from the grid, down from a peak of 42.3% in 1992.

Solar (4.8%) and wind (38%) now add up to 42.7% of generation; the global figure is 17.3%. Per person, that is 277 kWh of solar electricity a year, versus a global average of 338 kWh. Wind adds 2,216 kWh per person, the 5th-highest figure of 156 countries. Solar first passed 1% of the mix in 2023.

Generation per person is 5,831 kWh a year, 1.5× the world average of 3,860 kWh. Ireland is a net importer of electricity, buying 6.7 TWh more than it sells, about 18% of its demand.