Labour targets 50% of electricity from renewable sources

THE Labour Party wants 50% of the country’s electricity requirements to be generated from renewable sources by 2020, but admits it does not know how this can be achieved.

Launching the party’s “Blueprint for a Low-Carbon Ireland” yesterday, environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said very ambitious targets had to be set if climate change was to be tackled. He pledged that Labour in government would set a target of 50% for electricity generation from renewable sources by 2020.

Quizzed about how the party would achieve this, given the current limited availability of renewable energy, he said: “You set a target and it’s very difficult to translate that into practical terms in terms of how many turbines does that translate into. I don’t think there’s anybody who can answer that question right now.