Historic Moneypoint Shutdown Propels Ireland Into Europe’s Coal-Free Future

After nearly four decades of powering Irish homes and businesses with coal, Moneypoint power station finally called it quits on June 20, 2025. No fanfare. No tears. Just the quiet end of an era that makes Ireland the 15th European country to kick its coal habit entirely.

Built in the mid-1980s when oil crises had everyone sweating, Moneypoint was supposed to be Ireland’s energy security blanket. Now? It’s yesterday’s news. The shutdown wasn’t even supposed to happen this soon—both the government and utilities had penciled in a later date. Guess climate change wasn’t in the mood to wait.

Wind power is the new golden child of Irish energy. It cranked out a whopping 37% of the country’s electricity in 2024—that’s 11.4 TWh for the numbers nerds. Solar’s playing catch-up at 0.97 TWh, but it’s breaking records left and right. Pretty impressive for a country that once got a measly 1% of its juice from wind back in the early 2000s. This follows the global trend where renewables produced 21% of electricity in the US, surpassing coal for the first time in history.

Don’t think Moneypoint’s heading for the scrapyard just yet. The old workhorse will stick around as a backup until 2029, burning heavy fuel oil if things get dicey. It’s like keeping your ex’s number “just in case.” EirGrid and the CRU worked out this arrangement to keep the lights on while Ireland gets its renewable act together.

Since 2017, Moneypoint’s been slowly changing its stripes with investments like a 17 MW wind farm. The big news dropped in 2021 with the Green Atlantic project—a multi-billion-euro plan to transform the site. They’ve already sunk €50 million into Ireland’s first synchronous compensator. Fancy!

With its deep-water port and major grid connections, Moneypoint’s poised to become renewable royalty. Ireland joins just five other European countries that have successfully eliminated coal from their electricity mix. Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth are urging minimal oil backup use during the transition period. And Ireland? It’s strutting onto the European stage as a model for fast-tracking the green transformation. Coal’s dead. Long live the wind.