Just two turbines in the entire country with a capacity of 7MW have been granted planning permission in the last six months, according to Wind Energy Ireland (WEI).

“To put this in context, we need to get planning permission for, and build, an additional 3,800MW if we want to achieve our 9,000MW onshore wind target by 2030,” explained WEI CEO Noel Cunniffe.

“These projects need planning approval by the end of 2026 to have a chance of hitting this goal and we are running out of time,” he added.

He made the comments when launching the latest wind energy report, which shows that wind generation in Ireland was the highest on record for the month of August.

Records

The latest figures show that wind power generation in August 2024 totalled 1,068 gigawatt hours (GWh), an increase of 3% compared with the previous record set during the same month last year (1,042GWh).

Solar power and other renewables accounted for 6% of Ireland’s electricity during August 2024, meaning that 40% of Ireland’s electricity came from renewable sources.

Kerry on top

The report shows that Kerry wind farms produced more electricity than any other county last month at 129GWh. It was followed by Cork (100GWh), Galway (91GWh), Mayo (84GWh) and Donegal (70GWh).

Together, the top three counties provided over one quarter of Ireland's wind power last month.

The average wholesale price of electricity in Ireland per megawatt-hour during August 2024 was €100.04, down slightly from €106.46 in August 2023.

Prices on days with the most wind power saw the average cost of a megawatt-hour of electricity decrease by nearly 10% to €90.67 per megawatt-hour and rise to €125.96 on days when we relied almost entirely on fossil fuels, the report outlines.