Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe
Ireland today (June 20) became the 15th coal-free country in Europe, having ended coal power generation at its 915 MW Moneypoint coal plant in County Clare. Initially commissioned in the mid-1980s by ESB, Moneypoint was intended to help Ireland offset the impact of the oil crises in the 1970s by providing a dependable source of energy.
But with Ireland now generating a lot more renewable energy nowadays, coal burning is no longer such an urgent need. Energy think tank Ember data states Ireland generated 37% (11.4 TWh) of its electricity from wind in 2024. Solar is not near wind levels of generation, (0.97 TWh in 2024) but it has been continuously breaking generation records in recent months and local stakeholders are confident this positive trend will continue.
Following the closure, the Moneypoint plant will continue to serve a limited backup role, burning heavy fuel oil under emergency instruction from Ireland’s transmission system operator EirGrid until 2029.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/20/ireland-coal-free-ends-coal-power-generation-moneypoint/
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...436 grams CO2/kWh as of this writing.
Electricity Map Ireland (Accessed, 6/20/2025 17:45 hrs, US EST)
The trillions of dollars spent on so called "renewable energy" - coupled with all the rhetoric pretending that switching from coal to gas is actually switching from coal to so called "renewable energy," has not put a blip, zilch, zero, in the accumulation of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere.
The graphic at the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory is pretty clear, showing no effect of all the cheering and money thrown at so called "renewable energy" since the dawn of the 21st century, other than, perhaps, things getting worse faster:
Full Record, Monthly Average Mauna Loa CO2 ] (Accessed, 6/20/2025 18:00 hrs, US EST)
There is a country in Europe that switched from clean energy to coal, of course, Germany, which as of this writing has a carbon intensity of 408 grams CO2/kWh, making it only the the fourth worse country in Europe after Poland 717 grams CO2/kWh, Southern Italy 462 grams CO2/kWh and Ireland, see above.
Poland has contracted to build nuclear reactors, and last week the Italian government reversed its 1987 ban on nuclear energy.
In "percent talk" Ireland's carbon intensity is 1615% higher than that of France, as of this writing 27 grams CO2/kWh as of this writing, down 2 CO2/kWh from a few minutes ago.
We have on this burning planet all kinds of cheering for the "great victories" of "renewable energy" over coal, which is delusional, because the world is burning more coal than it has ever done before, and the multitrillion dollar cheering for wind and solar has done nothing, zero, zilch, to reverse its growth.
I know, I know, I know there's all kinds of soothsaying about how the world will phase out coal, but having experienced such soothsaying for my entire adult life, I rather regard it pretty much the same as soothsaying about how Jesus will come back to Earth, and ask the Orange nightmare in the White House, which souls should be saved for heaven, and which should go to hell.
I am at a loss to understand why we are so anxious to embrace lies. The practice is killing the planet.
Enthusiasm for wind and solar has nothing at all to do with addressing the use of fossil fuels. On the contrary, they depend on access to fossil fuels. The sole purpose of the wind and solar fantasy, expensive and as useless as it is, is to attack nuclear energy, an ignorant practice that has had huge consequences from which we may never recover.
Have a nice weekend.