Irish wind farms set new August records

Wind generation in Ireland was the highest on record for an August month, according to Wind Energy Ireland (WEI), which today published its monthly wind energy report. The latest figures show that wind power generation in August 2024 totalled 1,068 gigawatt-hours (GWh), an increase of 3 per cent when compared to the previous record set during the same month last year (1,042 GWh).

Strong winds in recent weeks also meant that, at 34 per cent, Irish wind farms met just over one-third of Ireland's electricity demand in August 2024, surpassing the previous record of 33 per cent in August 2023.

Solar power and other renewables accounted for approximately 6 per cent of Ireland’s electricity during August 2024, meaning that 40 per cent of Ireland’s electricity came from renewable sources.

County by county generation

The report shows that Kerry wind farms produced more electricity than any other county last month at 129 GWh. It was closely followed by Cork (100 GWh), Galway (91 GWh), Mayo (84 GWh) and Donegal (70 GWh). Together, the top three counties provided over a quarter Ireland's wind power last month.

Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland said: “It is fantastic to see the positive contribution that renewable energy made in August, with wind and solar energy providing 40 per cent of Ireland's electricity.

“While it is something to be proud of, we must acknowledge the SEAI’s most recent Energy Balance report, which highlights that Ireland is making progress on emissions reduction but we are still falling short on our renewable energy targets.”

Noel Cunniffe added: “Only two turbines in the entire country with a capacity of 7 MW have been granted planning permission in the last six months. To put this in context, we need to get planning permission for, and build, an additional 3,800 MW if we want to achieve our 9,000 MW onshore wind target by 2030.

“These projects need planning approval by the end of 2026 to have a chance of hitting this goal and we are running out of time.

“To meet our Climate Action Plan targets, we really need to accelerate the delivery of new onshore and offshore wind farms and to do this we need the Government to continue to invest in our planning system to ensure applications are thoroughly, but quickly, examined.”

Price of electricity

The average wholesale price of electricity in Ireland per megawatt-hour during August 2024 was €100.04, down slightly from €106.46 in August 2023.

Prices on days with the most wind power saw the average cost of a megawatt-hour of electricity decrease by nearly 10 per cent to €90.67 per megawatt hour and rise to €125.96 on days when we relied almost entirely on fossil fuels.

Noel Cunniffe said: “Affordability is really important as well as reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. 

“Every time a wind turbine or solar panel is generating electricity, it is reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuels, helping to push down wholesale electricity prices and increasing our supply of clean energy to power our homes and local communities."

The report confirms that wind farms provided 32 per cent of Ireland’s electricity in the first eight months of 2024.

Noel Cunniffe concluded: “The best way to cut our carbon emissions is to accelerate the development of renewable energy and the Government is helping to do just that by providing the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) to deliver on our Climate Action Plan targets.

“RESS is an auction-based scheme, which invites onshore wind and solar energy projects to compete against each other to win contracts to provide electricity at a set price.

“The provisional results of the Government’s latest auction (RESS 4) are expected to be announced later today and we are hopeful that several wind and solar projects will be successful in that auction.”

The results of this report are based on EirGrid’s SCADA data compiled by MullanGrid, market data provided by ElectroRoute and SEMO daily metered generated data compiled by Green Collective.