Start of a new era at Moneypoint
Having used coal for the last time in June 2025, Moneypoint Power Station in Co Clare is gearing up for an exciting new chapter: as a renewable energy hub enabling Ireland’s net zero future.
Read the blogMoneypoint Power Station
Located near Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary in Co Clare, Moneypoint served Ireland for 40 years as the country’s largest generation station with an installed capacity of 915MW.
While it continues to offer energy security as a generator of last resort for the country, our focus is continuing its transformation into a critical renewable energy hub.
In response to a security of electricity supply need identified by EirGrid and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), in August 2023, ESB and EirGrid signed an agreement to make Moneypoint available as an out-of-market generator of last resort from 2025 to 2029. To meet this period of operation, we converted the station to run on oil during this term. Oil is less carbon intensive than coal and the Moneypoint units can operate solely on oil.
As an out-of-market generator of last resort, Moneypoint will not be active in the wholesale electricity market but will be available to operate, at the instruction of EirGrid, as a backup to the system in the event of a shortage of generation capacity.
It is expected that over 2,000MW of new generation will come online this decade, and this will end the need for the existing Moneypoint facility to be available.
We long signalled our intent to end the use of coal at Moneypoint by the end of 2025 and announced it in June (2025).
Please see below the press release marking the milestone.
Since 2021, ESB has been progressing a multi-year redevelopment of its Moneypoint site. The Green Atlantic @ Moneypoint programme, which is central to our strategic goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2040, is a multi-billion Euro programme of projects that will see the redevelopment of this brownfield site. This includes serving offshore renewable energy (ORE) developments in the Atlantic and beyond, supporting the on-going activities of the ORE sector, while meeting the need for energy storage and dispatchable generation.
Our new site concept, supported by a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), will guide the future development of Moneypoint. This concept will align with national and regional policy and reflect our commitment to sustainability, innovation, and community engagement.
Moneypoint was commissioned between 1985 and 1987 by ESB to meet increasing demand for electricity, reduce Ireland’s dependence on imported heavy fuel oil (HFO) and mitigate the impact of the 1970s oil crises.
With the potential to store sufficient coal for up to three months of operation, the station provided fuel diversity and a dependable source of energy in a sector increasingly dependent on variable renewable resources of energy such as wind and solar, and separately, natural gas.
Coal was purchased on the international market through registered procurement companies, utility trading business units and specialist traders. As the station required a specific type of coal for its operation, there were a limited number of mines globally that could meet those specifications.
Membership of Bettercoal
To ensure we sourced coal in an ethical and responsible way on the international market, as well as addressing concerns about operations at such coal sites, we joined Bettercoal in 2014.
Bettercoal was established to promote continuous improvement in mining and sourcing coal for the benefit of all the people affected by the industry – including workers and their communities. In effect, it is working towards a globally responsible coal supply chain. More information on Bettercoal is available on their website.
Sourcing of Coal
Between 2015 and 2025, the predominant sources of coal for Moneypoint were from Colombia (principally from the Cerrejón mine) and Russia. In the period up to 2020, ESB shifted away from use of Colombian coal and Russia was the primary source of supply. In fact, Moneypoint had not taken delivery of any coal from Colombia in the period from 2018 to early 2022.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we switched procurement of coal away from Russia. At that time, we had to quickly source alternative supplies to ensure Moneypoint was available to meet the needs of the Irish electricity system. Due to the lack of suitable coal being available from other sources at that time, we secured replacement coal for Moneypoint from Cerrejon to ensure uninterrupted supplies were available to support the security of supply needs within the State. We also supplemented sources of coal including South Africa and Australia.
After long signalling our intent of ceasing coal at Moneypoint, we announced in June 2025 that we had achieved this ahead of schedule.