New policy support will be needed for onshore wind to help meet Northern Ireland’s renewable energy goals, according to a new report by Cornwall Insight and Ionic Consulting.
The report – ‘Future of Renewables in Northern Ireland’ – was commissioned by the Northern Ireland government to provide an assessment of the current state of clean power in the country as well as modelling for future renewable scenarios.
It found that some onshore wind is likely to be created without subsidy support, but it is questionable whether enough would be built able to meet renewable electricity targets of 55% or 70%.
Therefore, route-to-market support will be necessary, the report said.
Northern Ireland also needs to develop new generation assets in this decade, or face serious security of supply issues towards 2030 and beyond, it added.
The ambition of the targets will have a material impact on the cost and extent of electricity grid build-out with forecast investment of between £388m (€431m) and £672mn required depending on the scenario, Cornwall Insight and Ionic Consulting said.
They also said that diversity of technology is an important consideration from the perspective of both grid capacity and security of supply.
Cornwall Insight head of energy markets Conall Bolger said: “We were delighted to deliver this work with our partners Ionic Consulting.
“It was a complex and challenging piece of work. We developed a set of options and analysis to aid Northern Irish policymakers in their deliberation on the future of the Northern Irish energy sector, at a time when much of the information was not available, and the options were unclear.
“Since then, we have seen the process around the Call for Evidence on Northern Ireland’s Energy Strategy, the publication of Energy in Northern Ireland 2020 report and the scale of the ambition in SONI’s Tomorrow’s Energy Scenarios.
“In developing our analysis, we engaged with a variety of stakeholders across Northern Ireland’s energy sector.
“The appetite for activity was evident; there are signs of real innovation emerging in both the renewables and flexibility space.
“We thank the Department for Economy for giving us the opportunity to help contribute to their thinking and we look forward to working with all of our customers across Northern Ireland.”