Irish wind farms continued their strong performance in February, providing 42% of the country’s electricity.
Driven by wind’s strong performance, average prices on the wholesale electricity market fell to their lowest point since November 2022.
CEO of Wind Energy Ireland Noel Cunniffe (pictured) said: “Irish wind farms provided nearly half the country’s electricity in the first two months of the year.
“Every unit of power they produce pushes fossil fuels off the electricity system, helping to cut our carbon emissions and to insulate families and businesses from the worst effects of the energy price crisis.
“We expect to see significant progress this year with new wind farms connecting to the grid, solar projects coming on stream and the first offshore sites applying for planning permission.
“But it is Ireland’s planning system that remains the main barrier to the rapid development of renewable energy in this country.
“Projects are queued up in An Bord Pleanála with very few signs of progress or improvement.
“We cannot build renewable energy and reinforce our electricity grid with a planning system that is fundamentally broken.”
The average wholesale price of electricity in January was €159.19, down a small amount on prices in January, but still far higher than before the fossil fuel energy crisis.
Prices fell even further on days with the most wind power when the average cost of a megawatt-hour of electricity was €139.61, rising to €196.85 on days when production had to rely 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.