90% of all energy used in Ireland came from fossil fuels in 2017, according to a report published by the sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

The Energy in Ireland presents the latest national data and trends on energy use and renewable energy in Ireland. This year's revealed a 0.5% increase in energy demand as the economy grew by 3.0%.

Commenting on the urgent need for action to address Ireland's energy challenges, Jim Gannon, CEO of SEAI, said: "Despite some areas of good performance in 2017, the bottom line is that we need to accelerate the pace of change. Collectively and individually, we need to use less as we take greater advantage of the renewable energy available to us here in Ireland.

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"SEAI's Government of Ireland funded grants have already supported energy efficiency improvements in 400,000 homes, which along with other measures like improved building regulations has resulted in the average energy used per dwelling in Ireland now being 30% lower than it was in 2005. The next phase of activity in the residential sector must be a rapid acceleration towards deeper retrofits using the technical, consumer, financial and supply chain learnings from SEAI’s deep retrofit and other programmes."

The 2018 report also shows energy demand in transport increased by 2% in 2017.