Irish wind farms provided 42% of the country’s electricity in February, according to a new report from Wind Energy Ireland.
Although this is up slightly on the amount of wind-generated electricity in January, it is back on the record-breaking performance of February 2022.
Average prices on the wholesale electricity market dropped to their lowest level since November 2022 as a result of the performance of wind energy, the report said.
Wind farms
Commenting on the latest data, Noel Cunniffe, chief executive of Wind Energy Ireland, said: “Irish wind farms provided nearly half the country’s electricity in the first two months of the year.
“Every unit of power they produce pushes fossil fuels off the electricity system, helping to cut our carbon emissions and to insulate families and businesses from the worst effects of the energy-price crisis.
“We expect to see significant progress this year with new wind farms connecting to the grid, solar projects coming on stream and the first offshore wind projects applying for planning permission,” he said.
However, Cunniffe hit out at Ireland’s planning system which he said is “the main barrier to the rapid development of renewable energy in this country”.
“Projects are queued up in An Bord Pleanála with very few signs of progress or improvement. We cannot build renewable energy and reinforce our electricity grid with a planning system that is fundamentally broken.
“The reforms the government is bringing forward to the planning system can certainly help, but the key issue of under-resourcing is going to remain.
“There simply are not enough people with the right skills in agencies like An Bord Pleanála and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). The sooner this changes, the sooner we can make wind energy Ireland’s number one source of electricity,” he said.
Electricity
The average wholesale price of electricity in February was €159.19, down slightly on prices in January, but still far higher than before the fossil-fuel energy crisis.
Prices fell even further on days with the most wind power when the average cost of a megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity was €139.61, rising to €196.85 on days when the country had to rely almost entirely on fossil fuels.
“Irish families, communities and businesses will remain at the mercy of a volatile global energy market exactly as long as we are forced to rely on imported fossil fuels for our power.
“The quicker we can build wind farms, the faster we can reinforce the electricity grid, the more we can do to help consumers,” Cunniffe said.