Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 April 2026
273. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the progress made on the commitment in the Programme for Government to establish national renewable energy clusters to be co-located with training and education centres; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29595/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Programme for Government 2025 commits to a strategic shift toward renewable energy clusters, primarily through the development of Green Energy Parks. These clusters aim to co-locate high-demand energy users with indigenous renewable energy supplies to improve grid efficiency, support decarbonisation, and support economic development.
This concept of industrial parks primarily powered by green energy was originally set out in ‘Powering Prosperity – Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy’, published by Government in March 2023. A key pillar of Government’s Large Energy User Action Plan (LEAP), published in January this year, will be to provide a framework for the establishment of Green Energy Parks in which to co-locate the most energy-intensive large energy user sectors with the supply of renewables and other enabling technologies that will support economic development across the economy in the coming decades. The LEAP approach was further informed by an independent report commissioned by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) 'An Economic Assessment of Green Energy Park Concepts', which was published alongside LEAP in January 2026, and is available on the DETE website at: enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/leap.html.
The establishment of Green Energy Parks will be informed by cross-Government collaboration and the preparation a forthcoming National Planning Statement, and other government and regulatory policies, as appropriate.
In addition to the initiatives under LEAP, under the aegis of the? Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce, work is underway on developing a supporting policy framework for Ireland’s electricity supply, one that will deliver a regional balance and distribution of renewable technologies, including solar PV and onshore wind, and enable Ireland’s electricity supply to keep pace with economic growth, protecting Irish homes and businesses from volatile fossil fuel prices through the deployment of indigenous wind and solar energy across our regions.
As part of this approach, Regional Renewable Electricity Capacity Allocations for solar and onshore wind were included in the First Revision of the National Planning Framework, published in April 2025. The inclusion of these allocations is a critical step towards achieving Ireland’s national renewable electricity targets and will support a plan-led approach to the strategic planning of renewable technologies, delivering a fair regional balance and distribution of the associated infrastructure.
