Irish onshore renewables auction awards 1.33 GW of solar and wind

Ireland on Monday published provisional results for its fourth onshore renewables auction, showing that 1,333.64 MW of projects, comprising 959.84 MW of solar and 373.8 MW of onshore wind, were successful and 512.91 MW were unsuccessful.

In GWh terms, 2,070.97 GWh was successful, including 924.9 GWh of solar and 1,146.07 GWh of onshore wind.

The average price for all winning projects was EUR 96.85 (USD 107) per MWh. For solar it was EUR 104.76 per MWh, and for wind -- EUR 90.47 per MWh.

The provisional results of the fourth auction under the government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) were announced on EirGrid plc’s website. The final results are due on September 25.

Wind Energy Ireland welcomed the news that four wind farms have secured contracts in the tender and said the focus now should be on increasing the volume of renewable energy in future auctions. It called for addressing planning and grid challenges.

The prices are lower than some had anticipated and below average wholesale electricity price in Ireland over the period May-July, which was around EUR 110 per MWh, the organisation also commented.

The Irish Solar Energy Association (ISEA) pointed out that the awarded solar capacity is almost double the volume secured in last year’s RESS 3 auction.

Conall Bolger, CEO of ISEA, said: “The results of this auction give us a real chance of hitting the Government’s solar targets, but we must now focus on overcoming infrastructure challenges. Building the necessary grid to support these projects is essential to meeting our goals."

(EUR 1 = USD 1.104)

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