Ireland’s wind farms have set a new record in 2023 with their best ever performance for the month of April.
The amount of electricity produced by wind energy last month was up 8% against April 2022 while the share of demand met rose from 32% to 35% as demand for power continued to rise.
There was some good news for consumers as wholesale electricity prices fell again, for the fourth consecutive month, and the average wholesale price of electricity in April 2023 was the lowest it has been since June 2021.
Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, said: “Ireland’s wind farms are reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuels, supporting Irish jobs and helping to push down wholesale electricity prices while cutting the carbon emissions which are fuelling the climate emergency.
“We know we can make an even bigger difference if we can connect more wind farms and this week saw significant progress with the closure of our first ever auction for offshore wind energy and the publication of the terms and conditions for the next onshore renewables auction.
“The best way out of the current energy crisis is to accelerate the development of renewable energy and the Government is helping to do just that by setting out a clear auction timetable.”
However, Wind Energy Ireland also warned that the best way to ensure auctions are competitive is to enable as many projects as possible to compete which will require speeding up the planning system.
Cunniffe added: “We are expecting a small number of wind projects to be competing in the next auction. This is not because the pipeline is not there, we have more than 10 GW of onshore projects in development, but because so many of our projects are being delayed in the planning system.”
The average wholesale price of electricity fell in April, for the fourth straight month, to €125.57. This is the lowest the average monthly price has been since June 2021 but still significantly above average prices before the fossil-fuel energy crisis began.
Prices fell even further last month on days with the most wind power when the average cost of a megawatt-hour of electricity was €108.01, rising to €129.29 on days when Ireland almost entirely on fossil-fuels.
The results of this report are based on EirGrid’s SCADA data compiled by MullanGrid and on market data provided by ElectroRoute.