WEI response to the provisional results of RESS 4

Successful onshore wind auction clearing way for new wind farms 

But focus now needed to increase the volume of renewable energy in future auctions  

Wind Energy Ireland has welcomed today’s announcement that four wind farms have won contracts in the fourth auction under the Government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS 4). 

The projects successful in today’s auction will deliver 374 MW of the 3,800 MW of new onshore wind energy required by the Climate Action Plan to be in place by 2030. The auction results show that 1,146 GWh of wind energy were successful alongside 925 GWh of solar energy.

Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland said: “The provisional results of the Government’s auction represent a positive step towards delivering the Climate Action Plan. The wind and solar projects which were successful in today’s auction deserve to be congratulated and will help to decarbonise our energy system.

“These projects are playing their part in Ireland’s energy revolution which will deliver more affordable, clean and secure electricity to our homes, businesses and local communities.”

Auction Price 

The average price of wind energy was €90.47 per megawatt hour, while the average price of solar energy was €104.76 per megawatt hour. These prices are lower than some had anticipated which is positive news for Irish electricity consumers. The average wholesale electricity price in Ireland over May to July was around €110 per megawatt hour. 

Noel Cunniffe said: “This auction’s price for wind energy is substantially below the current average wholesale electricity prices and demonstrates that renewable energy can be good for the planet and good for your pocket too.

“We very much welcome the changes introduced by Government to the design of the auction, such as new measures to reduce the impact of grid and planning delays, which have allowed projects to bid in for a contract at a competitive price to deliver value for consumers. We are seeing the positive effects of those new measures in today’s results.”

Planning and grid challenges  

Wind Energy Ireland has called again on Government to examine ways to increase the volume of renewable energy entering future auctions. 

The industry has continually called for further investment in An Bord Pleanála (ABP), the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) and local authority planning departments to put in place a planning system that can quickly, but thoroughly assess applications for renewable energy projects. 

Noel Cunniffe said: “Renewable energy projects must have planning permission in order to enter a RESS auction, which emphasises the need for planning applications for renewable energy projects to be quickly, but thoroughly assessed. This will help to ensure that projects looking to participate in future auctions will receive decisions on their planning applications in time to bid in the auction.

“It is also critical to ensure that national efforts to speed up the delivery of renewable energy projects are not impeded by county councils across Ireland amending County Development Plans to block the development of new wind farms.”

Wind Energy Ireland has also highlighted the need to have a strengthened electricity grid in place to distribute energy that will be produced by new wind farms to our local communities. 

Noel Cunniffe continued: “Without a strengthened electricity grid, power will be lost and force projects to charge more for the power they produce or mean they cannot compete in the auction at all.

“That is one of the reasons why Ireland’s electricity grid must urgently be reinforced as a lack of grid capacity is driving up prices. To do this, continued political support should be given to EirGrid’s grid strategy to develop this critical energy infrastructure.”

Noel Cunniffe concluded: “We still believe this is the best way to enable wind and solar farms to deliver power at the lowest possible price for consumers whose electricity bills remain high.

“Following today’s auction results, we are again calling on all arms of the Government to work with us to continue to increase the volume of renewable energy projects entering RESS auctions so that we can deliver the energy needed by our society in a way that delivers better energy prices for consumers.”