Irish industry urgently needs to accelerate its use of renewable energy, a conference was told yesterday.

Mr Andrew Parish, project manager with the Irish Energy Centre, said the Republic was not maximising the benefits of alternative energy sources, despite the "vast opportunities" available and was more dependent on imported fuel than any other European country.

"While Ireland is richly endowed with renewable energy resources, we have yet to make use of these resources," he told representatives of some of the State's largest industrial consumers of energy at an IEC conference in Kilkenny.

A number of pressures starting to bear on the Irish economy were creating an urgent need for change, he said. One was the Republic's over-reliance on imported fuels to meet energy needs. "Ireland is now the most import-dependent country in Europe for energy - importing 86 per cent of all fuel consumed."

Another pressure was the possible use of enforcement mechanisms by the EU, including punitive fines, if the Republic did not meet its commitments under the UN Kyoto Protocol.

As part of the EU burden-sharing arrangement, the State was committed to limiting total emissions of greenhouse gases to 13 per cent above 1990 levels in the period 2008 to 2012. This limit had already been reached.