Energy target will be missed without ‘radical’ change

The former head of Bord Gáis has warned that Ireland will not meet its energy targets by 2020 and will face fines of up to half a billion euro per year unless a “ground changing and radical” white paper on renewable energy is produced.

In a presentation to the MacGill Summer School, John Mullins said our renewable energy target for 2020 is 16% of primary sources.

“We are currently at 8% after a decade and a half of significant investment. We have five years left,” he said. “We will not meet this target without a ground changing and radical white paper which will accelerate all forms of renewable technologies on the supply and remove any barriers to implementation of sophisticated ICT based demand management tools on the demand side.” Mr Mullins, who is now chief executive of Amarenco Solar, said Ireland’s dependency on imported energy is at 89%.