Ireland needs to rebalance its energy policy to better meet the needs of consumers and provide energy security, according to a report from the Irish Academy of Engineering.
It says the country's current plan to have zero net green house gas emissions by 2050 is failing, with reduction targets set to be missed.
At the same time it says the country's long-term energy and infrastructure needs are being ignored.
"The report comes from a state of frustration at the state of Irish energy policy," said Eamonn O'Reilly, chairman of the IAE's energy and climate action committee.
He said Ireland's objective of being climate neutral by 2050 was "unachievable", while an aim of having 54,000 MW of renewable energy generation here "simply makes no sense".
"The first 5,000 of that by 2030, we're going to miss that by a country mile, and in the meantime price of electricity and energy security are effectively being ignored," he said. "And critically we don't have a long-term, 25-year plan for all of the overhead transmission lines that are going to have to be build.
"And all of the back-up generation capacity that's going to be needed if we are going to electrify heating and transport and cater for growth - growth in population, leading to growth in the economy."
Mr O'Reilly said it was not a case of changing direction in terms of renewables - but it was about ensuring the country's infrastructure was able to meet demand in the years ahead.
To do this he said it was vital that Ireland began to look beyond a five or 10 year horizon in order to properly plan for the country's needs - especially because of the time it can take for such infrastructure to be built here.
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"We shouldn't fool ourselves that we're somehow going to magically get this long-term, unpopular overhead transmission line infrastructure built if we don't start planning today," he said.
He said there also needed to be an acceptance of the fact that the future energy system could not depend entirely on renewables.
"Ireland has no indigenous energy source which can meet the country's adequately, reliably and with security," he said. "Wind doesn't do that - this is a fundamental misrepresentation of what renewables can do.
"Renewables can definitely take an awful lot of carbon emissions out of the system - but we always need some source of energy that is going to make sure our electricity sources are adequate, that they are reliable, and that we have security of supply over, let's say, a 30 day period where there is no wind."
