Almost 40% of Electricity Provided by Renewables in January

Provisional data from EirGrid, the operator and developer of Ireland’s electricity grid, shows that 39% of electricity in January came from renewable sources.

This compares to a similar figure for the same month last year, with official metered data showing that 40% of electricity in January 2025 was generated by renewables.

Most of the renewable energy generated last month came from wind, amounting to 33% of all the electricity used in January. Total generation from wind energy was 1119 GWh (Gigawatt hours), compared to 1243 GWh in December.

While solar power contributed just under 1% to the overall fuel mix in January, it still had a contribution to the fuel mix on brighter days, illustrating its benefit even during colder winter months.

Generation from grid scale solar peaked at 371 MW (~8% of Ireland System Demand) on Wednesday 28 January at 12.45 pm. In addition, it is estimated an equivalent amount of embedded solar generation (mostly rooftop) occurred at this time, depressing total system demand.

Gas generation accounted for 44% of all electricity used last month, and 16% was imported via interconnection.

New all-time demand peaks for a Saturday and a Sunday were recorded in January.

On Saturday, 3 January at 5.39 pm, demand reached 5297MW. This was the most demand on the electricity system on a Saturday for twelve months, with the previous record set on Saturday 4 January 2025.

Similarly, on Sunday, 4 January, demand reached 5480MW at 5.31 pm. The previous record for peak demand on a Sunday was recorded on 30 November 2025.

The overall electricity system demand stood at 3409 GWh in January,up from 3234 GWh in December and 2,894GWh in January 2025.2

While a new system peak demand of 6,024MW was set in January 2025, the peak demand this January did not surpass the 6,000 MW mark, standing at 5916 MW and recorded on Monday, 5 January at 5.47 pm. This is largely due to milder temperatures this January versus January 2025.

Diarmaid Gillespie, EirGrid’s Director of System Operations, said:

“The high demand on the system that we have seen over recent months and that we expect at this time of year continued in January.

“Notably, there were all-time demand peaks for a Saturday and a Sunday recorded in the month, with the record set on Saturday 3 January the highest that we have seen for a Saturday since the same weekend last year. Parts of the country experienced a cold snap with snow and ice over that first weekend of the year, which will in part explain the high level of demand on the electricity system.

“Similarly to what our recent data shows us, January again saw a significant amount of renewable energy contributing to the overall fuel mix.”