Ireland is still very reliant on imported fossil fuels despite more energy coming from renewable sources, according to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland's (SEAI) latest energy security report.
Last year, just over 78% of the country's energy requirements were met by imported fossil fuels, well above the European Union average of 57%.
This made Ireland’s requirements the fourth highest in EU.
Oil products fuelled almost half (48.9%) of Ireland’s total primary energy requirements, leaving the country exposed to geopolitical risks on international markets.
"While we are making some progress on renewables - with solar in particular continuing its remarkable growth, Ireland is still too reliant on imported fossil fuels, leaving our economy vulnerable to events outside of our control," SEAI CEO William Walsh said.
We need your consent to load this flourish contentWe use flourish to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
"We've seen in recent months how quickly sharp increases in global oil and gas prices can feed into our home heating bills, transport costs and overheads for business."
Most energy imports (over 55%) came from the UK, with the US contributing 16.9% and the EU making up 16.2%.
Oil and natural gas made up more than three quarters of Ireland’s energy needs last year.
All of the oil and more than 82% of the gas were imported.
Growth in renewables
Renewable energy contributed 15.9% of energy needs in 2025, up 6.8% from the previous year.
The big growth was in Solar PV, which generated 1.65 terawatt hours - 50% more than in 2024 and 150% more than in 2023.
The growth in wind generation, Ireland’s largest renewable energy source, was more modest, up just over 3%.
Installed capacity last year was 5.1GW, well below the Climate Plan 2025 target of 6GW.
The transport and electricity sectors both exceeded their emissions ceilings for the 2021-2025 carbon budget period although emissions from both sectors fell last year.
Overall energy-related emissions fell last year to below 30 megatons of CO2 equivalent (MtCO₂eq) for the first time since records began.
Energy-related emissions last year were 19% below 2018 levels, the baseline year for the 2030 target of a 51% reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions.
The trend aligns with a 2.7% annual fall in emissions, achieved despite a rising population and increasing vehicle numbers.
However, meeting the target set for the first carbon budget period of 2021-2025 would have required annual reductions to average 4.8%.
'Huge challenge'
Head of Data Insight at the SEAI Jim Scheer has said that despite Ireland's reliance on imported fossil fuels, progress is being made on renewables.
However, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said that the rate of reduction of energy-related emissions was still too slow.
"We're reliant on imported fossil fuels, imported energy to the tune of around 80% and 90% of those are fossil fuels," he said.
"We have had some progress on renewables, which account for almost 16% of our energy requirement in 2025, and that's a new high.
"Our energy-related emissions are at an all-time low, below 30 million tonnes, and that's very promising.
"However, the rate of reduction of those emissions, per EPA reporting earlier this week, is about 2.7% per annum and it needs to be about four-and-a-half times faster which is a huge challenge."
Mr Scheer said progress is being made in relation to solar energy.
"We've seen significant gains, a 50% increase in deployment on 2024 and 150% on 2023; that's grid connected solar and also rooftop connected solar," he said.
"We were very successful with onshore wind for many years and about 40% of our electricity is renewable, mainly because of that onshore wind, but there have been delays to the offshore development. We expect that to come in the early 2030s and that will provide a big shift.
"The other momentum we need is really around reducing energy demand; the less energy demand we have, the less we're importing and relying on those volatile international fossil fuel prices."
Mr Scheer said that while Government supports were at an all-time high, the responsibility cannot lie with consumers alone.
"Almost 60,000 homes upgraded last year for improving their energy demand and shifting to renewables," he said.
"Thousands of businesses interact with SEAI and the Department of Enterprise every year to reduce their energy demand, and we added 18,000 electric vehicles to the fleet.
"We need to be making big, tough decisions at the system level as well."
