The latest round of Ireland’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) has delivered the smallest volume of renewable energy of any auction to date.
Only three wind farms were awarded contracts in the government auction at a total capacity of 148.4MW, while 497.6MW of solar capacity emerged from the process.
It is a significant shortfall compared to RESS 2 last year, which delivered 414MW of wind capacity and more than 1.5GW of solar.
Eirgrid noted a provisional average strike price of €100.47 per megawatt-hour in RESS 3, higher than in the previous two rounds.
Strike prices reached €97.87/MWh in RESS 2 and €74.08/MWh in the inaugural RESS 1.
The biggest onshore wind winner was SSE Renewables which secured 101MW of capacity for its Yellow River wind farm in County Offaly.
Orsted meanwhile won a 43.2MW contract for its Farranrory project in Tipperary, while 4.2MW was awarded to Bradan wind farm.
Solar winners included ESB for its 101MW Tracystown PV project, while Orsted secured 80MW for its 160MW Garrenleen solar farm, which is being developed in two phases.
Wind Energy Ireland said the results were extremely disappointing, highlighting planning delays that have prevented some projects from being eligible to enter the auction.
The trade group’s chief executive Noel Cunniffe said: “The wind and solar projects which were successful in today’s auction deserve to be congratulated and will help to decarbonise our energy system.
“But we cannot ignore the reality that this is the third auction for onshore wind and solar and when we should be seeing prices going down, and the volume of renewable energy winning contracts rising, we are seeing the exact opposite.
“The critical issue remains the failure of the Irish planning system to meet its timelines for processing applications for renewable energy projects.”
He noted it has been one year since an onshore wind farm in Ireland was granted planning approval from An Bord Pleanála, adding “dozens of wind energy projects are stuck in planning limbo”.
“We are calling on the Government to meet with ourselves and with our colleagues in the solar industry to review the auction design ahead of next year’s auction, and to examine the entire system for delivering onshore renewable energy in Ireland.
“Business as usual doesn’t cut it anymore.”