Ireland officially bids farewell to coal: Moneypoint power plant shut down after 40 years of operation

21 June 2025 , 08:20

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Ireland officially bids farewell to coal: Moneypoint power plant shut down after 40 years of operation

Moneypoint power station to remain on standby until 2029 – will run on fuel oil in emergencies

Ireland has become the latest European country to halt coal-fired electricity generation, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.

Ireland’s last coal-fired power station, Moneypoint in County Clare, has officially ceased operations after more than 40 years in service. The plant was operated by the state-owned energy company ESB.

“This marks the end of the coal era in Ireland and the beginning of a cleaner energy future,” said ESB CEO Paddy Hayes.

Moneypoint will remain on standby until 2029 and, in the event of an emergency, will be able to run on fuel oil under the control of national grid operator EirGrid. In the meantime, the facility is being repurposed to support the energy transition. Notably, in 2022, it became home to Ireland’s first synchronous compensator.

This device helps the grid maintain inertia and frequency — a function that is increasingly crucial as renewable energy takes up a larger share of the power mix. Experts believe a lack of such stabilizing systems may have contributed to the recent large-scale blackout in Spain.

Bloomberg notes that later this year, Italy is expected to shut down two major coal plants, while Spain’s coal-fired power stations are either being dismantled or converted to run on gas.

Thanks to an accelerated shift toward renewables, Europe has nearly halved coal’s share in the energy mix, according to analysts at Ember. As recently as 2013, coal — the dirtiest fossil fuel — still dominated the continent’s electricity generation.

Henry Morgan