Noel Cunniffe
CEO, Wind Energy Ireland
Onshore wind energy is our most affordable source of new electricity. It is clean and secure; it creates jobs at home; and it supports communities in rural Ireland.
Irish wind farms provide more than a third of the country’s electricity — a higher share from onshore wind than anywhere else in Europe. Without them, we would spend more than a billion euros a year on gas, chiefly imported, for electricity generation. While offshore wind gains momentum, onshore projects remain essential to meeting 2030 targets and will supply most of our renewable power well into the next decade.
Accelerating affordable wind energy
We need to build more, faster and more affordably or face billions in fines identified by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council. A new report from MKO, ‘Protecting Consumers: Our onshore wind energy opportunity,’ provides a detailed analysis of the potential for more onshore wind energy in Ireland and shows us that we can do just that.
We have just over 5,000MW connected to the electricity grid. Another four thousand have secured, or applied for, planning permission, which could get us close to our existing 9,000MW target.
MKO’s detailed and painstaking analysis maps every household and business in Ireland; identifies every environmentally protected area, every river, lake and stream; develops a coherent national approach to landscape; and identifies the total space left in Ireland for onshore wind energy development.
Out of this area — roughly 1,302 square kilometres or less than 2% of the country — authors conservatively estimate that at least another 6,000MW of onshore wind energy could be produced beyond the current 9,000MW target.
We need to build more,
faster and more affordably
or face billions in fines.
Challenges to tackle
Some of the most suitable locations identified are in areas with a weak electricity grid network. That is why investing in upgrading our grid is so important — to get affordable, clean energy from where it is produced to where it is needed.
Other locations might be difficult to develop at the right cost. That is why we, supported by the rest of the renewable energy industry, have been calling for a cross-departmental and independently chaired task force to identify how we can lower the price of renewable electricity in Ireland.
A resilient future with wind energy
We cannot build a strong, resilient, low-carbon economy if we are relying on imported, expensive fossil fuels. Ireland’s onshore wind farms — supported by new offshore wind projects, solar, storage and a new generation of advanced interconnectors — will secure the future of a prosperous, competitive country in which our families and our businesses can thrive. That’s a prize worth fighting for.
