New report: Wind and solar farms saved electricity consumers €840 million since 2000

Reaching our renewable electricity targets in 2030 could cut consumer bills by an additional €610 million

Wind and solar farms saved Irish electricity customers €840 million since 2000, according to new analysis published today (16 January) by energy specialists Baringa.

The report, entitled Good for your Pocket: How renewable energy helps Irish electricity consumers, finds that, even based on conservative estimates, the financial benefit of developing renewable energy has significantly outweighed all possible costs for consumers.

According to the Baringa research, the savings produced by Ireland’s reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels exceeded the expense of support schemes, grid network development and other costs by close to €840 million. Wind farms were credited with just under 98 per cent of these net savings with solar farms contributing the remainder.

Ireland’s wind generation capacity has grown since 2000 from 117 MW to more than 5,000 MW installed across the country, and more than 600 MW of solar generation has been connected in recent years. Last year, according to data from Green Collective, nearly 40 per cent of the country’s electricity came from renewables.

This scaling up of renewable energy sources since 2000 has also cut Irish spending on fossil fuels by €7.4 billion and prevented the production of more than 47 million tonnes of CO₂ up to the end of 2023.

Annual Conference

Launching the report at the Wind Energy Ireland Annual Conference, which takes place today and tomorrow (16 and 17 January) at the Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Noel Cunniffe, CEO of the Wind Energy Ireland, said:

“What Good for your Pocket shows is that every single wind turbine we build, and every set of solar panels we install, helps Irish families and businesses to save money.

“Since 2021 alone, renewables have displaced almost €4 billion worth of fossil fuels, insulating Irish consumers from the very worst of the impacts of the fossil fuel energy crisis. However, we should still be paying less.

“As long as we maintain our dependency on imported gas, we are letting the price we pay for electricity be dictated to us by international fossil fuel companies. Every hour, Ireland is spending €1 million to import fossil fuels, but there is a viable alternative, a way to keep this money at home.

“We can build more wind and solar farms, reinforce our electricity grid, electrify our heat and transport systems and work with our EU partners to reform the common electricity market. The incoming Government can save Irish consumers millions of euros, while also ensuring a clean, secure, domestic energy supply and creating thousands of jobs.”

Further savings

Good for your Pocket: How renewable energy helps Irish electricity consumers also predicts that, if gas prices remain high and if Ireland reaches the target of 80 per cent renewable electricity set out in the Climate Action Plan, consumer bills could fall by a further €610 million from 2030.

Noel Cunniffe continued: “The next five years present an opportunity to make unprecedented progress in moving to relying on locally produced renewable energy and accelerating the next phase of Ireland’s economic development.

“By 2030 we can deliver cleaner and more affordable power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Ireland and lay the foundation for Irish energy independence.”