Five onshore wind farms and 18 solar parks are the latest renewable energy projects to win State contracts to supply clean electricity.
The 23 projects have the capacity to provide just over 1000 megawatts (MW) of electricity or enough to meet the needs of 350,000 households.
The contracts, awarded after an auction initially involving 40 bidders, set a price of €98.81 per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity, lower than the current wholesale price of around €123.
For households, that works out at just under 10 cents per unit of electricity, although the price charged by suppliers adds various standing charges and levies to that base cost.
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The contracts apply for 15 years, with the suppliers receiving a top-up from the State any time they receive lower than the auction price when they sell power on the open market and paying back to the State when they get a higher price.
The projects already have planning permission and agreements that they can connect to the national electricity grid, and under the terms of the contract, they must be operational by the end of 2030 at the latest.
They are also required to pay into community benefit funds at a minimum rate of €2 per MWh.
Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien said this would put around €3 million per year into local communities.
Mr O’Brien welcomed the results of the auction saying: “We are not only reducing carbon emissions and dependence on imported fuels but also generating investment and jobs in communities across the country.”
The wind projects are in counties Mayo, Cork, Waterford, Wicklow and Tipperary, while the solar projects are clustered mainly in the east, south-east and midlands.
This is the fifth time an auction under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) has been completed, and a sixth is planned for next year.
A separate ORESS was run for offshore wind projects and a second ORESS is also planned.
While the extra 1,000MW (1GW) of power will be an important addition to renewable energy supply when it comes on stream, concerns remain over Ireland’s ability to meet its 2030 renewable energy and emission reduction targets.
Under the Climate Action Plan, the country aims to have 9GW of onshore wind capacity installed, 8GW of solar and 5GW of offshore wind.
Currently there is about 5GW of onshore wind, 1.75GW of solar and no offshore.
Solar projects have become increasingly prominent in the last few auctions and in RESS 5 the successful projects have capacity to generate 860MW of electricity compared to 219MW from wind.
It is understood that wind developers are increasingly looking to private corporate power purchase agreements under which they supply directly to large industries.
