Ireland tarries on joined-up gas thinking

The island nation has endorsed gas for power supply security. But it will not be rushed on its parlous procurement options for the primary fuel

Ireland declared the development of new gas-fired, as well as gasoil and distillate-fired, generation as a national priority in an end-of-November policy statement. Existing thermal generation capacity should also be retained until new conventional plants are developed in order to ensure power supply security and support renewable generation growth. “October’s National Development Plan and November’s Climate Action Plan 2021 set out the need to develop c.2000MW of new gas-fired generation in order to ensure security of supply and underpin Ireland’s increased target of up to 80pc of electricity demand to come from renewable sources by 2030,” the country’s environment department says. The gove