41 per cent of our electricity last month came from Irish wind farms

The February Wind Energy Report shows that wind energy provided 41 per cent of Ireland’s electricity in February 2024, while the amount of power generated by wind farms was 4 per cent on last February.

The latest figures, published by Wind Energy Ireland, also show that the country’s demand for electricity last month increased slightly when compared to the same month in 2023.

The report also confirms that 38 per cent of Ireland’s power came from wind farms in the first two months of 2024.  

Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, said: “Irish wind farms provided well over a third of the country’s electricity in the first two months of this year. Every unit of power they produce pushes fossil fuels off the electricity system, helping to cut our carbon emissions and reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels.

“Last year was a record-breaking year for Ireland’s wind farms, producing more electricity than ever before. While consumers continued to face high energy bills, wind was critical to protect consumers from the worst effects of the fossil fuel energy crisis.”

Noel Cunniffe continued: “In Ireland, we are fortunate to have natural resources such as wind that can generate clean, affordable, electricity and we should be doing everything we can to develop these resources in 2024 and beyond.

“Critical to this will be reinforcing our electricity grid and we want to see EirGrid get support right across Irish society for its plans to reinforce our transmission system. We would urge people to support the BuildOurGrid.ie campaign and to ensure their elected representatives are raising their voices in support of projects like the North-South Interconnector which are essential to a robust, modern, Irish electricity grid.”

Wholesale price fall continues

The wind energy report found that the average wholesale price of electricity in Ireland per megawatt-hour during February 2024 was €84.61, down from €159.19 the previous year.

Prices on days with the most wind power saw the average cost of a megawatt-hour of electricity fall even further to €61.56 per megawatt hour, rising to €120.46 on days when we relied almost entirely on fossil fuels.

Noel Cunniffe concluded: “The fall in the average price of wholesale electricity in comparison to February 2023 is welcome news. Electricity generated from Irish wind farms replaces expensive imported fossil fuels and by adding more wind power to the system, we can cut our carbon emissions and cut our electricity bills.”

The total electricity demand last month was 3,439 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of power and wind energy generated 1,414 GWh.

The results of this report are based on EirGrid’s SCADA data compiled by MullanGrid and on market data provided by ElectroRoute.