Ireland’s Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment is aiming to launch consultations for the sixth round of the Renewable Energy Support Scheme auction (RESS6) as soon as next week.
DCEE principal officer, renewable electricity Philip Newsome (pictured) told attendees at the 2026 Wind Energy Ireland conference in Dublin that RESS 6 will be the first edition of the auction to incorporate the new non-price criteria mandated by the European Union’s Net-Zero Industry Act legislation.
Price will remain the dominant criteria in RESS 6, Newsome said, but will be joined by resilience will be weighted at 5% and energy system integration, weighted between 10 and 25%.
The new criteria required by NZIA will be “an opportunity to evolve RESS, as something we want to do anyway”, Newsome told attendees.
“It’s a big change from the world we’ve known for the last 5 years, but hopefully a change for good.”
Ireland’s wind industry is hoping that the sixth auction, tipped for the autumn of 2026, will be the largest auction for onshore wind yet.
WEI CEO Noel Cunniffe told the conference that there is roughly 1.3GW of onshore wind projects ready to sign offtake agreements, either through RESS or through the corporate power purchase agreement market.
The fifth RESS auction was widely seen as disappointing across the sector, with only 219MW worth of projects coming away with contracts.