Ireland Shutters Its Last Coal-Fired Generating Station – CleanTechnica

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Ireland recently became the 15th European nation to stop burning coal to make electricity. The Moneypoint thermal generating station in Country Clare stopped burning coal on June 20, 2025. The facility was constructed more than 40 years ago in response to turmoil in world oil markets in order to ensure that Ireland had a reliable supply of electrical energy.

The transition away from coal began in 2017 as the Moneypoint facility was repurposed as at clean energy hub. Power stations have one enormous advantage — access to a high power connection to the energy grid. Constructing new transmission lines costs a lot of money and can take a lot of time to get the permitting done and obtain approval to connect to the grid. Reusing that connection can save developers a lot of time and money.

According to ESB, the owner of Moneypoint, the facility is in the process of becoming a major renewable facility in Ireland. The transition began in 2017 with the construction of a 17 MW onshore wind farm. In 2021, ESB announced Green Atlantic@Moneypoint, a multi-billion euro plan to transform the site into one of the Ireland’s largest renewable energy hubs, thanks to its deep water port and significant existing infrastructure. Phase one of this plan was completed in 2022 with a €50 million investment in Ireland’s first synchronous compensator, a zero-carbon technology that allows the system to utilize ever increasing amounts of use of renewable electricity, the company said in a press release.

A compensator helps the grid regulate the inertia and frequency on the grid as it deals with inputs from renewables. This type of grid stability is important to keep the lights on even when large amounts of renewables flood the system, an issue which many are pointing to as the cause of the recent blackout in Spain.

Timmy Dooley, of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, said, “The early end of coal generation at Moneypoint represents a significant milestone for ESB and is another important step in Ireland’s energy transformation. It is the people of the Mid-West that have made this possible and I am delighted that the site will continue to play a critical role in securing Ireland’s electricity supply for a number of years to come, before transforming into a renewable energy hub to meet the future zero carbon needs of the country.”

Cathal Marley, the CEO of EirGrid, said,“Today is a significant milestone for our electricity system, marking the end of coal generation at Moneypoint and in Ireland. EirGrid has been tasked with delivering a renewable-led electricity transmission system, which will benefit our economy and society, requiring the delivery of an unprecedented level of upgrades and new infrastructure. As we transition, it’s important that we maintain a secure supply of electricity.

“While Moneypoint will no longer use coal, we entered an agreement with ESB, following direction from our regulator, CRU, to make Moneypoint units available on a temporary basis as out of market units up to 31st March 2029. The units will operate using oil as the primary fuel source and will support the overall adequacy position for Ireland, alongside the other measures in CRU’s Security of Supply Program.”

For readers who get a frown on their faces at the thought of burning oil to generate electricity, cheer up. Moneypoint will only do so when directed by the government following a declaration of emergency. In 2023, ESB and EirGrid signed an agreement to keep Moneypoint available to generate electricity from oil until 2029 and it will only be required to operate when the electricity system is short of generating capacity, and under instruction from EirGrid.

“Ireland has quietly rewritten its energy story, replacing toxic coal with homegrown renewable power. But this isn’t ‘job done’. The government’s priority now must be building a power system fit for a renewable future; one with the storage, flexibility, and grid infrastructure needed to run fully on clean, domestic renewable electricity,” said Alexandru Mustață, campaigner on coal and gas at Beyond Fossil Fuels.

Bloomberg reports that Italy will also close its last two coal-fired generating stations this summer, and in Spain, its last coal plants will also close later this year, although some will be converted to methane. According to data from Ember, Europe’s commitment to addressing global heating in a rational way has led to a nearly 50% reduction in the amount of coal burned to make electricity for the Continent.

That is all wonderful news, but there are storm clouds on the horizon because of the voracious appetite for electricity by data centers. As a rule of thumb, an AI internet search uses as much as ten times more electricity as a standard internet search. People are gaga over AI, even though much of it is pretty silly. Not one person in ten can tell you what it is exactly; they just know they gotta have it.

In a email to CleanTechnica, consultancy Accenture claims the carbon emissions from data centers that are dedicated to AI are on track to increase eleven times between now and 2030. Its research shows that over the next five years, AI data centers could consume 612 terawatt-hours of electricity — equal to the entire energy usage of Canada in a typical year — resulting in a 3.4% increase in global carbon emissions.

Additionally, at a time when global fresh water supplies are dangerously low, these data centers are predicted to consume more than 3 billion cubic meters of water annually. Is that a lot? Yes it is. That’s approximately how much fresh water is consumed every year by entire nations such as Norway or Sweden.

As we reported recently, the lack of fresh water is leading to a phenomenon known as subsidence, which can destabilize homes and commercial structures in the built environment. Will that slow down the rush to embrace AI? Not in the slightest. Elon Musk is keeping a dozen portable methane generators busy for his Colossus data center in Memphis. Nobody in the city seems to mind, probably because most of the local people affected most by the emissions are black and brown people with no political power. Whatever Musk wants, Musk gets. That’s just the way things are when you are the richest person in the entire history of the planet.

The hope is that Ireland does not cave to special interests by boosting its thermal generating capacity to satisfy the demands of the tech industry. People in the US are learning how quickly the renewable energy transition can shift onto another track, even when the finish line is nearly in sight.