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.

This strategy is in line with previous plans made by EirGrid and ESB to exit coal-fired generation by the end of 2025, which stipulated that Moneypoint would no longer be active in the wholesale electricity market.

“Ireland has quietly rewritten its energy story, replacing toxic coal with homegrown renewable power,” said Alexandru Mustață, campaigner on coal and gas at Europe’s Beyond Fossil Fuels.

“But this isn’t ‘job done’. The government’s priority now must be building a power system for a renewable future; one with the storage, flexibility, and grid infrastructure needed to run fully on clean, domestic renewable electricity,” Mustață warned.

Jerry Mac Evilly, Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth Ireland, appealed to the government to ensure oil backup at Moneypoint is kept to an absolute minimum and ultimately decommissioned. He also appealed for the government to prevent further development of data centers, which he said are increasing Ireland’s reliance on fossil gas.

“We also can’t ignore that the government is targeting the installation of at least 2 GW of gas power plants with no strategy to reduce Ireland’s dangerous gas dependency,” he added.

On a broader level, Ireland’s step to close coal power generation at Moneypoint sets a precedent for further European countries’ coal exits to come, says Beyond Fossil Fuels. The group tracks European countries' progress on their commitments to switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy. So far, 23 European countries have committed to coal phase-outs. Italy is expected to complete its mainland coal phase-out this summer with the upcoming closure of its last two big coal power plants, while mainland Spain is also expecting to declare itself coal-free this summer.