Ireland Shuts Last Coal Plant, Becomes 15th Coal-Free Country in Europe

The Moneypoint power station – credit, Charles W Glynn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ireland will become the fifteenth European nation without coal in its energy mix following a recent announcement.

The ESB Moneypoint power station was built in the 1980s to help alleviate the effects of the oil shock, and remains today in County Claire as the last coal-capable asset in the country.

It will be converted to burn emergency oil reserves following a surge in renewable energy production.


Even that is planned to cease in 2029, but starting from June this year, Moneypoint will no longer be present in the wholesale electricity market.

11 terawatt-hours of electricity was generated by wind turbines last year, and made up 37% of Ireland’s total energy generation, reports Ember, a renewables-focused think tank.


“Ireland has quietly rewritten its energy story, replacing toxic coal with homegrown renewable power,” said Alexandru Mustață, campaigner on coal and gas at Europe’s Beyond Fossil Fuels.

“But this isn’t ‘job done’. The government’s priority now must be building a power system for a renewable future; one with the storage, flexibility, and grid infrastructure needed to run fully on clean, domestic renewable electricity,” Mustață warned.

According to Beyond Fossil Fuels, Ireland joins Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Portugal, and the UK, who have already stopped using coal, accompanied by Spain and Slovakia who are also completing their coal phase-outs this year.

Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Switzerland, Estonia, Norway, Malta, Albania, and Luxembourg never burned coal at the grid level. This leaves Serbia, Montenegro, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechia, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Denmark and the Netherlands who rely on coal to some degree.Some of these have existing commitments to abandon coal like Germany and Romania, and others, like Poland and Serbia, who don’t. Italy, France, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Hungary and the Netherlands will reach their commitments in the next 5 years. Ireland Shuts Last Coal Plant, Becomes 15th Coal-Free Country in Europe
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Kylian Mbappe wins European Golden Boot

Kylian Mbappe has won the 2024/25 European Golden Boot thanks to his 31-goal haul in La Liga, leading the way with 62 points, Football Today reports.

Mbappe scored eight fewer league goals than Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyokeres, who was, however, handicapped by having his goals multiplied by a coefficient of 1.5 as opposed to Mbappe’s 2.

The 26-year-old netted a double in Real Madrid’s final game of the season on Saturday against Real Sociedad to take the lead in the Golden Boot race.

Nonetheless, he would have been looking anxiously over his shoulders earlier today with Mohamed Salah in action against Crystal Palace.

Salah needed three goals to share the award with Mbappe and four to win it outrightly, but could only find the back of the net once in Liverpool’s 1-1 draw.

A whopping six goals behind at kick-off, Robert Lewandowski was the last of Mbappe’s competitors to take to the field on Sunday and scored twice inside the opening 17 minutes to give himself a glimmer of hope.

However, the Poland international missed several opportunities to add to his tally and had been substituted off by the time Barcelona got a late penalty, which Dani Olmo converted.

Lewandowski ended the season on 27 league goals, four behind Mbappe, confirming the Frenchman’s status as winner of the European Golden Boot award.

Mbappe is the first player in football history to win the Champions League, World Cup and European Golden Boot awards, further cementing his status as one of the world’s best players.

While the season ended relatively well for Mbappe on a personal level, he would have liked more collective glory to go along with it, as Madrid could only manage to win the European Super Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup.Under the tutelage of newly appointed manager Xabi Alonso, Los Blancos will be looking to go all the way in June’s Club World Cup tournament. Source Article
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Polish ministry approves plans for Rolls-Royce SMRs

How a Rolls-Royce SMR might look (Image: Rolls-Royce SMR)

Polish industrial group Industria's plan to construct a power plant based on Rolls-Royce's small modular reactor (SMR) has been approved by the Ministry of Climate and Environment.

Industria submitted its application for a decision-in-principle in December last year to Polish Climate and Environment Minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska. The application concerns the construction of a nuclear power plant using Rolls-Royce SMR technology - a 470 MWe design based on a small pressurised water reactor - and a used nuclear fuel storage facility as an integral part of the power plant.

On 10 May, Hennig-Kloska issued the ministry's decision-in-principle, saying that she believes the investment would be in the public interest and in line with Poland's energy and climate policies. The application was positively assessed by the Head of the Internal Security Agency and the Minister of State Assets.

The decision-in-principle represents official state approval for the planned investment in accordance with the assumptions and concept presented by the company. It is the first decision in the process of administrative permits for investments in nuclear power facilities in Poland that an investor may apply for. Obtaining it entitles Industria to apply for a number of further administrative arrangements, such as a siting decision or construction licence.

"Today's decision-in-principle by Poland's Environment Minister is extremely positive news and allows us to advance our commercial and technical discussions on the deployment of Rolls-Royce SMR power plants in Poland," said Rolls-Royce SMR's Director of Strategy and Business Development Alan Woods. "Poland is one of a number of key export opportunities for Rolls-Royce SMR as we look to build on our progress in the UK and exploit the important competitive advantage our SMR design has over its competitors."

Last year, state-owned Industria - part of Industrial Development Agency JSC (IDA) - selected Rolls-Royce SMR technology to fulfil the zero-emission energy goals of the Central Hydrogen Cluster in Poland and as part of their plans to produce 50,000 tonnes of low-carbon hydrogen every year.

In July 2023, Industria signed a letter of intent with the Kostrzyn-Słubicka Special Economic Zone SA (KSSSE) regarding cooperation on the location of a modular power plant based on Rolls-Royce SMR technology in the areas covered by the KSSSE.

Poland's Ministry of Climate and Environment issued a decision-in-principle in July last year on copper and silver producer KGHM Polska Miedź SA's plan to construct a NuScale VOYGR modular nuclear power plant with a capacity of 462 MWe consisting of six modules, each with a capacity of 77 MWe.

In December, the ministry issued decisions-in-principle to Orlen Synthos Green Energy for the construction of power plants based on GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's BWRX-300 SMR at six locations. A total of 24 BWRX-300 reactors are planned at the sites.

The ministry has also issued decisions-in-principle for the construction of two large nuclear power plants: one for a 3750 MWe plant in Pomerania using Westinghouse's AP1000 technology, the other for a plant comprising two South Korean-supplied APR1400 reactors in the Patnów-Konin region.Researched and written by World Nuclear News. Polish ministry approves plans for Rolls-Royce SMRs : New Nuclear - World Nuclear News
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