Alan Farrell
Question:42. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications the status of wind energy production and projections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29944/20]
View answerTuesday, 13 October 2020
Questions (42)
Written answers
The Government is committed to the rapid decarbonisation of the energy sector and will take the necessary action to deliver at least 70% renewable electricity by 2030.
At present, there is approximately 4.1GW of wind energy operational in Ireland, and wind supplied approximately 32% of total electricity demand in 2019. Ireland is a world leader at incorporating large amounts of wind-generated electricity onto the network and there is substantial future growth potential for wind power in Ireland. The Climate Action Plan included a commitment to deliver at least 3.5 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and up to 8.2 GW of onshore wind; the Programme for Government commits to a further increase in offshore wind deployment to 5 GW by 2030.
To support the delivery of the national ambition to further decrease our dependence on fossil fuels my Department has developed the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) which will assist Ireland in meeting its renewable energy contribution out to 2030 by providing supports to a range of technologies including onshore and offshore wind projects.The first RESS auction results were approved by Government in September 2020. 479MW of additional onshore wind energy projects were successful in this first RESS auction and these projects are expected to become operational by 2022.
Ireland’s National Energy and Climate Plan (Table 6 of the Plan) sets out estimated trajectories by renewable energy technology in order to achieve the overall and sectoral trajectories for renewable energy from 2021 to 2030. These technology levels are indicative and for electricity the level of each technology will be driven by technology costs and competitive auctions under the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) as well as major private sector funding through Corporate Power Purchase Agreements.