Auction results suggest Ireland is not on track to reach climate targets
Of Volume And The Per €100 Had Megawatt Price Hour The Date Per Auctions All Of Bidders For Three Highest Smallest Auction Renewable Of Average 47 The To Energy
The results of the latest auction for onshore renewable energy projects indicated Ireland is not on track to reach its 2030 climate commitments as planning delays repel developers.
The Renewable Energy Support Scheme 3 (Ress3) results, published by the national grid operator Eirgrid, were “massively undersubscribed” said Statkraft VP and director for Ireland wind and solar projects, Donal O’Sullivan.
Prior to Ress3, the auction was expected to award between 2,000 and 3,500 gigawatt hours of renewable onshore wind and solar energy contracts. However, this procurement was reduced to under 1,000 GWh.
The Ress auctions are part of the Programme for Government and the Climate Action Plan 2021 and were created with the aim of achieving the target of at least 80% renewable electricity by 2030. The State auctions award contracts to generate renewable electricity for 15 years at a set price.
Mr O’Sullivan said the results are a “sign of the times” and that if there’s another auction, it will need to be at least as successful as Ress1 to achieve the State’s climate targets. The volume of bidders in Ress3 was around 40% of Ress1.
There were more than 20 successful bidders in Ress 3, including Statkraft, which secured a solar project in Cork and a solar project in Wexford. The auction had the smallest volume of renewable energy bidders of all three auctions to date and for the highest average price of €100.47 per megawatt per hour.
Mr O’Sullivan said that planning issues remain the key reason for the undersubscription of the auction and that these results show clearly, for the first time, the impact of these delays.
In one example, it is taking the State planning agency, An Bord Pleanála, up to 12 months to grant permission for renewable energy developments in some cases. “There is not enough projects to meet government ambitions,” said Mr O’Sullivan.
Industry representative body Wind Energy Ireland described the results as “extremely disappointing”.
“We cannot ignore the reality that this is the third auction for onshore wind and solar and when we should be seeing prices going down, and the volume of renewable energy winning contracts rising, we are seeing the exact opposite,” said Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland.
He said:
Mr Cunniffe also echoed Mr O’Sullivan’s concerns about planning delays and the impact they are having on renewable energy development.
“Dozens of wind energy projects are in planning limbo. They are supposed to get their decisions in 18 weeks but the average decision time for a wind project is well over 90 weeks,” said Mr Cunniffe.
Inflation may also putting pressure on the renewable energy industry as the Ress auctions require investment capital prior to the awarded contracts. Meanwhile, the UK suffered a disaster earlier this month as its latest offshore auction secured zero bidders due to pricing.