An Bord Pleanála approved 10 new wind farms with a total capacity of 717MW last year – but this fell way short of government targets.
The approved capacity is only 42% of the volume of wind energy needed to keep Ireland on track for the government’s targets in the Climate Action Plan.
That is according to the first annual planning report published today by Wind Energy Ireland as hundreds of delegates arrived for day two of its Annual Conference in Dublin.
The report details the number of wind energy projects that passed through the planning system in 2024.
Wind Energy Ireland estimates that, to achieve the 9000MW of onshore wind energy by 2030 target in the Climate Action Plan, An Bord Pleanála would have needed to approve 1720MW during this period.
The Board also rejected planning applications from 12 wind farms with an estimated combined capacity of 677MW, while 30 projects totalling 1,598MW were awaiting decision at the end of 2024.
Chief executive officer of Wind Energy Ireland Noel Cunniffe said: “Irish people want clean, affordable and secure energy.
“That is what wind farms deliver but we will need more of them to provide the power Irish families, businesses and communities’ demand.
“Before we can build new wind farms, we need to first get them through the planning system and we are simply not seeing enough new projects to enable us to reach our 2030 targets.”
Industry did however welcome the increase in the number of decisions made in 2024, which was up by 16% compared to 2023.
The number of projects approved by An Bord Pleanála in Q4 2024 accounted for half of all wind energy projects that received planning permission in 2024 and compared to only a single project in the third quarter.
Cunniffe added: “An Bord Pleanála’s rate of grants for new wind farms increased significantly during the last quarter of 2024, with five wind farms receiving planning permission.
“An Bord Pleanála deserves credit for the increase in the amount of planning decisions being made, particularly towards the end of last year.
“But it is essential that the performance in Q4 of last year becomes the new normal, that we can maintain that pace of decision-making and even accelerate further in the months ahead.
“Despite a positive end to last year, today’s report shows that Ireland is still falling behind with just 717MW of new wind energy projects approved for planning in 2024 when we needed more than double that.”