Wind-free January increases pressure on Irish household and business bills beyond winter     

In recent years, wind has accounted for up to 40% of all power generated on the grid. Picture: Denis Minihane

An unseasonably windless January is adding to Ireland's energy headache and could result in record hikes in household and business bills extending beyond the winter, an Irish energy expert has warned. 

Cathal Ryan, a consultant at Cornwall Insight Ireland, said a long period of calm winter weather and wind-less conditions continuing this week mean that wind turbines are contributing much less than normal to generating power on the all-Ireland power grid.

Amid widespread shortages, wholesale energy prices in Ireland and the rest of Europe have risen steeply this winter and have already led to increases in heating and lighting bills for households and businesses climbing by levels not seen since the early 1970s.

In recent years, wind has accounted for up to 40% of all power generated on the grid, with much of the balance taken up by gas-fuelled power stations and a smaller share by coal.       

Any fallback in the contribution of wind to the grid could have significant effects in keeping energy prices at record levels and on the need to burn coal at power plants in the north and the south, with implications for climate goals and burning cleaner furls. 

"Wind is unseasonably low at the moment," Mr Ryan said, citing figures that show that coal accounted for 17% of all power last week on the all-Ireland grid, compared with 57% from gas and only 18% from wind. 

The figures also point to the potential for tight capacity on the grid extending far longer than the winter. 

For Irish energy prices, there was much better news on Monday evening as European wholesale as prices fell back. 

Prices of gas for delivery in March fell 11% to €76 per megawatt-hour, but remained at historically high levels of €63 for June.

Meanwhile, the cost of global oil held at high levels, with Brent crude little changed at $85.94 a barrel. 

Frantic oil buying, driven by supply outages and signs the Omicron coronavirus variant will not be as disruptive to fuel demand as previously feared, has pushed some crude grades to multi-year highs, suggesting the rally in Brent futures could be sustained for a while longer, oil traders said. 

In Ireland, the authorities will rely on the development of offshore wind farms on an arc from Co Louth to Cork to meet the climate renewables targets for 2030. 

After a slow start, Scotland has emerged as one of the leaders in developing offshore wind. 

Scotland awarded rights for a massive offshore wind development more than twice the size of the UK’s current capacity. The list of winning projects in the tender adds up to nearly 25 gigawatts, far bigger than the 10 gigawatts that Scottish authorities had anticipated ultimately being built.

If constructed, the projects will help provide clean power for the electrification of cars, home heating and factories that will drive a doubling of electricity demand in the next three decades. In all, the Scottish government will net about £700m (€840m) in fees from the applicants. 

Spain's Iberdrola won rights for about 7,000 megawatts, including sites it plans to build with  Shell. 

Additional reporting Bloomberg