Energy upgrades should be trebled, says report
If Ireland is to achieve its 2020 energy efficiency targets, the number of homes and businesses being upgraded for improved energy efficiency each year needs to be trebled.
A report from the enduring Energy Authority of Ireland also says the number of homes using renewable heat technology needs to be grown sevenfold.
This is the first time any official organisation has outlined tangible details of the transformation needed to achieve Ireland’s energy efficiency and renewable targets by 2020
For improved energy efficiency every year between now and 2020 – three times more than now, it says that 75,000 homes and businesses need to be upgraded.
40,000 homes already have renewable heat technology, such as a heat pump or solar panel, but seven times more than that is needed by the end of the decade.
Each year is added around 167 million litres of bio fuel to our petrol and diesel, but that needs to be tripled. And one fifth of new cars would have to be electric cars within the next five years.