Electricity produced from grid-scale solar power reached its highest recorded figure on the national electricity grid for the month of May, according to data from Eirgrid.

Approximately 71,731 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity was produced from grid-scale solar over the month, up from 61,082MWh in May 2023.

This represented 2.7% of all electricity generated in May, which is the highest proportion of solar power generation recorded on the grid to date for any monthly period.

Overall electricity system generation stood at 2.68 million MWh for May.

Sources

Around 28% of electricity came from renewable sources for the month, the majority from wind, which accounted for 20.4% of electricity produced, with the remainder of renewable generation coming from other sources including hydro and biomass.

Gas generation accounted for 51% of the electricity produced in May, with 18% being imported via interconnection, 2% coming from coal and the remaining 1% from other sources.

Grid penetration

Currently, the electricity grid can accommodate up to 75% of electricity from renewable sources at any one time. This is known as the system non-synchronous penetration (SNSP) limit. EirGrid is aiming to further increase the SNSP limit.

Director of system operations at EirGrid Diarmaid Gillespie said: “As more renewable energy becomes available in the coming years, we’ll be able to bring more wind and solar energy on to Ireland’s grid.

"Solar power has become a notable feature of the Irish power system over the last year in particular, as demonstrated by the figures for May.

“The balancing of supply and demand becomes more complex as more variable renewables, like wind and solar, come on to the grid, so upgrades, enhancements and new projects are required across the country, as set out in our 'Shaping Our Electricity Future' roadmap.”