The amount of electricity generated from renewable energy sources in Ireland has increased by 66 percent in a five-year time, said the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday.
In 2020, Ireland generated 5,077.3 megawatts of electricity from renewable energy sources, up 65.76 percent when compared with 3,063 megawatts of electricity produced from the same sources in 2015, said the CSO.
In 2020, 39.1 percent of electricity generated in Ireland came from renewable energy sources, slightly missing the country's national target of 40 percent, it said.
Renewable energy sources, including hydropower, wind energy, solar energy, bioenergy and geothermal energy, are now the second largest source of electricity after natural gas in Ireland, said the CSO.
The Climate Action Plan, unveiled by the Irish government in late 2021, has set out an ambitious target under which it hopes that up to 80 percent of electricity in the country will be generated from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Wind energy accounts for a lion's share of renewable energy in Ireland as Ireland is an island country sitting in the northeast of North Atlantic Ocean, frequently visited by wind storms.
Ireland's first commercial wind farm was commissioned in 1992, according to Wind Energy Ireland, the largest renewable energy organisation in Ireland.
There are now over 300 wind farms across Ireland and the largest one is in County Galway on the country's west coast facing North Atlantic Ocean. The farm has an installed capacity of 169 megawatts.
Editor: Galia
