The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has unveiled three energy roadmaps to 2050 focusing on the potential benefits of Ireland moving to a future energy system where electricity, managed via a smart-grid, and increasingly generated by wind, meets more of the country's energy needs, in particular for heat and transport.

The roadmaps, which are developed to inform energy policy in Ireland, demonstrate the potential to: positively exploit our abundant, indigenous energy resources; create employment and reduce our CO2 emissions; and over dependence on costly imported fossil fuels.

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The series of energy roadmaps relate to Smart-grid, Wind Energy and Electric Vehicles – from 2011 to 2050. Potential benefits by 2050 include fuel import savings of between €3.8 billion and €7.5 billion, 1.8 million electric vehicles on Irish roads reducing transport fossil fuel imports by 50%, and Irish wind energy contributing 2.5% to EU electricity demand and offsetting up to €10 billion of fossil fuel requirement.

Launching the Roadmaps, Professor J. Owen Lewis, Chief Executive of SEAI said: "The Roadmaps unveiled today are a further important mapping of the long term opportunities in energy and the road to a decarbonised energy system for Ireland. They show a great many benefits, including reduced energy imports leading to increased security of supply, increased use of renewables leading to lower CO2 emissions and significant employment and economic opportunities. Importantly, the Roadmaps assist in informing the necessary decisions and actions about our long term ambition for sustainable energy in Ireland."

(CD)