National Energy Balance

SEAI’s National Energy Balance is the definitive source of data for the supply, transformation, and demand of energy in Ireland. It is produced by SEAI’s Energy Statistics Team and is based on the direct surveying of hundreds of energy suppliers, as well as public administrative data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), Revenue Commissioners, and others.

On 1st May 2024, SEAI published the interim National Energy Balance for 2023. The release of the full 2023 National Energy Balance is scheduled for September 2024.

Trends in Ireland's Energy-Related Emissions

• Ireland’s national energy-related emissions^[1] were down by 7.3% in 2023 and reached their lowest level in 30 years but are still not falling fast enough to stay within our carbon budgets.
• Analysis indicates that annual reductions of over 11% in energy and industry emissions for 2024, and 2025 are needed, if Ireland is to keep within the summed energy-related sectoral emission ceilings of electricity, transport, built environment, and industry in the first carbon budget.
• The main driver of reduced energy-related emissions in 2023 was the reduced emissions from electricity generation.
• Emissions from electricity generation in Ireland were down by 20.9% in 2023, due to an increased use of electricity imported through international interconnectors and increased renewable generation in Ireland – see below for more details.
• National transport emissions, which exclude international aviation and navigation, were up by 0.2% in 2023.
• Drops in demand for natural gas and kerosene for heating are suggestive of reduced heating emissions in 2023, but this cannot be confirmed until non-ETS coal and peat emissions are more fully understood in the final Energy Balance which will publish later this year.
• Three years into its first 5-year carbon budget, SEAI estimates^[2] that Ireland has produced:
  • Electricity:                 27.4 MtCO₂e of its 40 MtCO₂e sectoral emission ceiling
  • Transport:                 34.7 MtCO₂e of its 54 MtCO₂e sectoral emission ceiling
• At the end of 2023, Ireland was exactly 60% through the 2021-2025 carbon budget, and is over-emitting against its CAP targets, having already emitted:
  • Electricity:                 68% through its 5-year ceiling
  • Transport:                 64% through its 5-year ceiling

[1] Ireland’s national and sectoral emission totals do not include emissions associated with international aviation or maritime transport, which are calculated and reported separately in accordance with guidance from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

[2] This is based on the EPA’s National Inventory Report 2024 for emissions to the end of 2022, and SEAI’s estimate for emissions in 2023. The EPA will provide official emission values for all sectors of the carbon budgets (including electricity, transport, built environments, industry, etc.) later in the year, using data from the full Energy Balance.

Trends in Ireland's Renewable Energy

• 14.0% of Ireland’s national energy requirement was renewable in 2023, up from 12.9% in 2022.
• 40.7%^[3] of Ireland’s gross final consumption of electricity was renewable in 2023, with CAP including a target for 80% of electricity demand to be met by renewable sources by 2030.
• Wind accounted for 50.8% of Ireland’s renewable energy, followed by biodiesel (13.6%), biomass (11.2%) and renewable wastes (8.0%).
• Wind generation in 2023 was 4.1% higher than in 2022, and higher than any previous year, setting a new annual record of 11.7 TWh.
• In 2023 Ireland produced more wind energy than it extracted from its natural gas reserves (10.9 TWh) for the first time.
• Solar electricity generation in 2023 was 334% higher than in 2022, but accounted for just 1.9% of Ireland’s electricity supply.
• In 2023, 64% of our solar generation came from utility-scale solar farms and 36% came from rooftop solar panels.
• Electricity from Irish solar farms increased by over 2400% in 2023, as multiple new utility-scale sites were grid-connected, while electricity from rooftop solar panels increased by 74%.
• Over 32,000 heat-pumps were installed in Irish homes in 2023, bringing the national total to at least 120,000 heat-pump heated homes, with CAP targeting 215,000 by 2025 and 680,000 by 2030.
• The use of renewable ambient heat from heat pumps increased by 19%.

[3] This is not Ireland’s 2023 RES-E result, which will be calculated following the publication of the full Energy Balance in September 2024 and in accordance with the EU Renewable Energy Directive and accompanying methodology. The RES-E calculation will differ from the figure presented here as it includes additional adjustments, including the normalisation of wind and hydro production, and accounting for the sustainability status of various biomass fuels.

Ireland's Generation and Import of Electricity

• Although Ireland’s demand for electricity increased by 3.0% in 2023, the generation of electricity in Ireland fell by 6.7%, due to an increased use of imported electricity through international interconnectors to the UK and Northern Ireland.
• In 2023, Ireland generated 3.3 TWh less electricity from fossil fuels than in 2022, balanced by 3.0 TWh more electricity imported through international interconnectors and 1.0 TWh more renewable generation in Ireland.
• Ireland’s net import of electricity across interconnectors increased 12-fold, increasing from 0.3 TWh in 2022 to 3.3 TWh in 2023 and set a new annual record for the level of net import of electricity.
• Interconnector electricity accounted for 9.5% of electricity supply in 2023, compared to 0.7% of electricity supply in 2022.
• Interconnector electricity was the third largest source of electricity in 2023, after natural gas (44.3%) and wind (33.7%).
• Net imports through interconnectors provided more electricity than all coal, peat, hydro, biogas, solar, and oil generation in Ireland combined.

Trends in Ireland's Transport Energy

• Ireland used 1.36 billion litres of jet kerosene in 2023 - the highest annual demand ever recorded and up 12.7% on the previous year.
• The road transport demand for diesel and petrol increased by 1.0% and 7.7% respectively.
• In 2023, demand for road transport demand for diesel and petrol stood at 98.4% and 96.2% of pre-COVID 2019 levels, respectively.
• The increased blending of renewable biofuel into road diesel in 2023 reduced the amount of petrochemical diesel Ireland needed by 2.0%.
• The annualised average biofuel-blend in road diesel was 8.4% in 2023 and 6.5% in 2022.

Trends in Ireland's Energy Supply

• Ireland’s national energy requirement fell by 1.7% in 2023.
• Our national energy requirement remains heavily fossil dependent, with 82.8% of our energy coming from fossil fuels in 2023.
• Over three quarters of Ireland's energy in 2023 came from oil and gas, with 48.8% of Ireland’s energy coming from oil for refining, heating, and transport.
• Ireland used 35.5% less coal, 19.2% less peat, and 7.2% less natural gas in 2023 than in 2022, driven by reductions in fossil-fuel generation of electricity, and reduced heating demand.
• Most of Ireland’s energy is imported - our energy import dependency was 78.4% in 2023.
• Ireland imported 77.5% of its natural gas requirement, as well as 100% of its oil and coal needs in 2023.
• Ireland imported 5.0% less energy in 2023, with a 53.7% drop in imported coal, and 3.6% and 2.8% drops in oil and natural gas, respectively.