A new report has revealed Northern Ireland’s spending on gas was cut by £243m by local wind energy generation during 2023.
The figures come from Wind Energy Ireland’s Annual Report and a new analysis published by energy specialists Baringa entitled Cutting Carbon Cutting Bills: Analysis of gas savings delivered by wind farms in 2023.
The Baringa analysis found, without wind energy, Northern Ireland would have had to spend an additional £176m on gas, most of which would have been imported, for power generation and an extra £68m on carbon credits to burn that gas.
They also estimated Northern Ireland turbines saved approximately 920,000 tonnes of carbon last year, equivalent to the amount of carbon produced by 200,000 homes.
The latest figures from the Department for the Economy’s Electricity Consumption and Renewable Generation in Northern Ireland: Year Ending September 2023 showed that 47.4% of total electricity consumption in Northern Ireland was generated from renewable sources. Of this, 83.8% was generated by wind.
Director of RenewableNI Steven Agnew said: “Northern Ireland was able to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels last year because of investment in renewable energy in the previous decade. In 2016, we connected 400MW of new renewable generation but only 86MW of large-scale generation has been connected this decade.
“Investment in the sector has stalled. The Accelerating Renewables report revealed 82% of global developers considered Northern Ireland an unattractive investment location for renewables. More than $350bn of capital has poured into renewable infrastructure investment around the world in the first half last year yet Northern Ireland has attracted virtually nothing.
“Two years ago, the final act of the Assembly was passing the Climate Bill making it a legal obligation to have 80% renewable generation by 2030. Unfortunately nothing has changed since then. Planning timelines, grid investment and a route to market remain barriers to development.”