Average wholesale electricity prices drop for third straight month

The share of electricity demand met by wind energy last month, at 28 per cent, was down slightly from April 2024 but it was a record month for Irish solar farms.

The latest figures, published by Wind Energy Ireland, also show that the demand for electricity during April 2025 fell marginally to 3,307 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 3,315 GWh in the same month last year.

Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, said: “Our members provided more than a third of Ireland’s electricity so far in 2025.

“At a time when our economy is under threat from tariffs, energy costs and global uncertainty we have a solution, ready-made, here in Ireland. Irish wind farms have cut bills by almost €1.7 billion since 2020, that’s around €320 per person. That’s good for your pocket.

“We spend a million euro an hour importing fossil fuels into this country. That’s money that could be staying here, supporting Irish jobs and growing Irish businesses if we can accelerate the delivery of new wind and solar energy projects.”

Electricity prices

The average wholesale cost of electricity has fallen steadily from €167.51 in January to €111.11 in April though this remains higher than prices for the same period last year.

On days last month with the most wind power the average cost of a megawatt-hour of electricity was €101.33 but this rose to €124.20 on days when we relied almost entirely on fossil fuels.

Noel Cunniffe added: “It is time to stand up for Irish electricity consumers. Onshore wind energy is Ireland’s most affordable source of new electricity. The more wind energy that we can develop, the less we rely on imported fossils fuels, and the better protected Irish families and businesses are from a volatile fossil fuel market. 

“Every month we see wind energy reducing electricity costs. Tripling our onshore wind capacity, which planning consultancy MKO recently showed is very achievable, would drive these costs down even further.”

 Kerry still leads

Based on data provided by Green Collective, Kerry wind farms provided more electricity than any other county last month with 111 GWh of power, around 12 per cent of the country’s wind energy. They were followed by Cork (91 GWh), then Galway (63 GWh), Mayo (62 GWh) and Tyrone (59 GWh).

Noel Cunniffe concluded: “Onshore wind energy is already our most affordable source of new electricity. It is clean, it is secure and it supports communities in rural Ireland.

“Wind farms in counties like Kerry, Cork and Galway are not just cutting bills and cutting emissions, they’re investing in their communities, supporting local economies and creating good green jobs at home.”

The results of this report are based on EirGrid’s SCADA data compiled by MullanGrid, market data provided by ElectroRoute and county-level wind generation data provided by Green Collective.