31 per cent of Ireland’s electricity provided by wind in October

Wind Energy Ireland has published its latest monthly report, which shows that wind energy provided nearly a third of Ireland’s electricity in October 2023. This means that Irish wind farms have supplied 33 per cent of Ireland’s electricity demand in the first 10 months of this year.

While the share of demand met by wind energy last month was 31 per cent, moderate winds meant that the amount of electricity generated by wind was down when compared with October 2022.

Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, said: “While wind generation figures last month were lower than previous Octobers, we are still on track for a strong performance from wind energy in 2023 with wind generation so far this year nearly 3 per cent higher than last year.

“The quicker we can build wind farms, the sooner we can rely on Irish renewable energy to provide our electricity and we can cut our carbon emissions. The more renewable energy we can connect, the more secure we make Ireland’s energy supply.”

Rising prices

The figures also show that while wholesale electricity prices rose again last month due to high fossil-fuel costs, there was still nearly €70 in the difference between the wholesale cost of electricity on the windiest days and those days when we had to rely almost entirely on fossil fuels – €101.66 and €170.79 respectively.

The average wholesale price for a megawatt-hour of electricity in October was €125.52, which was a 12 per cent increase when compared to the previous month.

Noel Cunniffe continued: “The increases we are seeing in electricity prices are driven by the price of imported fossil-fuels. Demand for gas tends to rise in the last three months of the year as the weather gets colder and the rising price of that gas is further fuelled by continuing global economic uncertainty.  

“Electricity generated from Irish wind energy replaces those imported fossil fuels. The more wind we can get on the system, the less we have to rely on expensive imported gas and the more we can do to help households struggling with high energy costs.”

Noel Cunniffe concluded: “One other piece of good news is that last month, we saw the lowest carbon intensity for Ireland on record for an October month at 231g/KWh. Increasing the amount of renewable energy we produce from zero carbon sources like wind and solar will help to lower our carbon emissions and contribute to cleaner air and warmer homes for our local communities.”

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