Renewable rewards for NI

20 Sept 2024

By Steven Agnew, RenewableNI Director

As the voice of the renewable electricity industry in Northern Ireland, RenewableNI is driving policy changes and fostering collaboration within the industry to accelerate the transition to clean, sustainable energy.

RenewableNI members are business leaders, technology innovators and expert thinkers from right across the industry. Working with our members we engage, educate and stimulate debate to increase public, political and investor support for the delivery of the net zero infrastructure NI needs.

In September we published a report showing the economic and environmental benefits of Northern Ireland’s investment in renewables. The report looked at data since 2000 and forecast ahead to the NI obligation of 80 per cent renewable electricity by 2030, set in the Climate Change Act.

Renewable Rewards: How you save from the switch to renewable electricity showed consumers have saved £200m to date and that achieving the target will unlock additional savings of £110 million per year.

There has been a lot of focus on the costs of the transition to renewable electricity, without a proper assessment of the savings made by technologies which have zero fuel costs. Every wind turbine and every solar panel installed reduces consumer bills.

The cost of delivering enough new projects to meet the NI Climate Act target is greatly outweighed by the rewards. Every individual and every business stands to benefit from the savings.

Renewable Rewards revealed that between 2020 and 2023 consumers in Northern Ireland saved an average of £160 off their bills. Conducted by Baringa, the report also found the transition to renewables has avoided more than 13 million tonnes of CO₂, equal to taking a quarter of all cars off the NI roads today.

At RenewableNI’s Smart Energy Conference last month, we discussed the policy reforms we need to ensure the renewable potential is achieved.

With key policy makers on the stage and in the audience, we are speaking truth to power.

What we need to see now is action.

Lagging behind in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has gone from leading to lagging behind. This decade only four new wind farms have become operational – a combined total of only 108 MW. To put that in perspective 400 MW was connected in 2016 when there last was a support scheme.

Northern Ireland is now lacking a renewable support scheme that our neighbours in ROI and GB are benefiting from. The Department for the Economy (DfE) is working on the design of a scheme that is scheduled to commence in early 2016. RenewableNI is working constructively with them to get this right.

While in recent years, being unique in lacking market support meant investment has been diverted away from NI, it now is a positive opportunity to learn from what has and hasn’t worked.

A well designed scheme will address key factors that will de-risk investment and result in lower prices, resulting in a boom of renewable developments.

From our regular survey of our members, we know there is a significant pipeline of renewable projects just waiting on the right policy signals to hit go.

The decisions made over the next year will determine the success or failure of the 2030 target. Market support is only the first step. We need to see progress on planning policy, consenting timelines, grid investment and procurement of enabling technologies.

As RenewableNI membership grows, so does the strength of our united voice. We have been calling for an Accelerating Renewables Taskforce to tackle the barriers to meeting the 2030 target and are starting to see signs of joined up action.

It will take many hands to decarbonise energy. We can do it if we are all pulling in the same direction.

RenewableNI’s Smart Energy Conference took place in Belfast today (24 October) setting out the economic and environmental benefits as NI transitions to a net zero electricity system. The morning session focused on the actions required over the next 60 months needed to achieve the Climate Act obligation of 80% renewable electricity by 2030. Pictured (l-r) Richard Rodgers, Department for the Economy; Tamasin Fraser, RenewableNI Chair.