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Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

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Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#11

Post by womble2 »

Gravityloss wrote: post #8
rwmj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd be better off with (and are building out) offshore and onshore wind. If you've ever been to the west coast of Ireland you'll know they've got almost unlimited wind energy. The country is targeting 5GW of capacity by 2030 and 37GW in the distant future[1]. If only they could harness the power of rain, Ireland would truly be an energy superpower. [1] https://www.irishtimes.com/special-reports/2025/10/30/winds-..…

Are they selling to UK that AFAIU stopped building wind 10 years ago. Regulatory advantage...

Not only has the UK not stopped building wind, they have over 30GW of installed wind capacity and sell electricity to Ireland for most of the year.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#12

Post by citrin_ru »

hvb2 wrote: post #9
Gravityloss wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they selling to UK that AFAIU stopped building wind 10 years ago. Regulatory advantage...

Uh? No they didn't stop at all? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_Kingd...

Tories during 2015-2023 made construction of new onshore wind farms all but impossible (removed subsidies and made planning permissions very difficult). I would assume Labor could reverse these polices but haven't seen anything in news about this.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#13

Post by CalRobert »

Great to see, hopefully they can end turf burning too. (For those unaware it's basically where you take a wetland habitat that's also an amazing carbon store, cut it in to chunks, dry it out, and burn it for a very dirty heat source)

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#14

Post by rithdmc »

CalRobert wrote: post #13

Great to see, hopefully they can end turf burning too. (For those unaware it's basically where you take a wetland habitat that's also an amazing carbon store, cut it in to chunks, dry it out, and burn it for a very dirty heat source)

I don't think turf (peat) has been burned for energy generation since 2023.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#16

Post by CalRobert »

rithdmc wrote: post #14
CalRobert wrote: post #13

Great to see, hopefully they can end turf burning too. (For those unaware it's basically where you take a wetland habitat that's also an amazing carbon store, cut it in to chunks, dry it out, and burn it for a very dirty heat source)

I don't think turf (peat) has been burned for energy generation since 2023.

True, I was referring to domestic heat in rural areas.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#17

Post by amiga386 »

Gravityloss wrote: post #8
rwmj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd be better off with (and are building out) offshore and onshore wind. If you've ever been to the west coast of Ireland you'll know they've got almost unlimited wind energy. The country is targeting 5GW of capacity by 2030 and 37GW in the distant future[1]. If only they could harness the power of rain, Ireland would truly be an energy superpower. [1] https://www.irishtimes.com/special-reports/2025/10/30/winds-..…

Are they selling to UK that AFAIU stopped building wind 10 years ago. Regulatory advantage...

You're mistaken.

Onshore wind in England was de-facto but not de-jure banned by the Tories in 2018, due to a footnote inserted in their National Planning Policy Framework. Labour removed this footnote in 2024, immediately after winning the election. [0]

Offshore wind was never affected, nor onshore wind in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/policy-statement-...

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#18

Post by amiga386 »

citrin_ru wrote: post #12
hvb2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh? No they didn't stop at all? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_Kingd...

Tories during 2015-2023 made construction of new onshore wind farms all but impossible (removed subsidies and made planning permissions very difficult). I would assume Labor could reverse these polices but haven't seen anything in news about this.

Now you have: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/08/... (2024)

Also https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/14/offshore...

Also https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/10/uk-onshore-...

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#20

Post by [deleted] »

citrin_ru wrote: post #12
hvb2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh? No they didn't stop at all? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_Kingd...

Tories during 2015-2023 made construction of new onshore wind farms all but impossible (removed subsidies and made planning permissions very difficult). I would assume Labor could reverse these polices but haven't seen anything in news about this.

[deleted]
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