Energy independence: A prize worth fighting for
At the 49MW Drumlins Park wind farm, Energia Group’s 16th wind farm, the first of several projects to reach commercial operation under a strategic agreement with Microsoft — Sean Finnegan, energy manager, Microsoft Ireland; Peter Baillie, MD, Energia Renewables; Victoria Keogh, head of comms, Microsoft Ireland; Ian Thom, CEO Energia Group; Garrett Donnellan, chief development officer, Energia Group.
Extensive mapping has found that Ireland can generate at least a further 6,000 MW of wind energy, in addition to what is already built or in the planning system.
Onshore wind energy is already our most affordable source of new electricity. It is clean, it is secure, it creates jobs at home and it supports communities in rural Ireland.
Irish wind farms provide more than a third of the country’s electricity and have saved consumers nearly €840 million since 2000, around €320 per person since the start of the decade.
Without them we would spend more than €1 billion a year on gas, almost all of it imported, for electricity generation.
While momentum continues to build behind offshore wind energy it is our onshore wind farms on which we must rely in our efforts to meet our 2030 targets and which will continue to provide the bulk of our renewable power until well into the next decade.
We need to build more, faster, and more affordably or face billions in fines identified by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council.
A new report from Galway-based planning consultancy MKO, Protecting Consumers: Our onshore wind energy opportunity, contains a detailed analysis of the potential for more onshore wind energy in Ireland, and shows us that we can do just that.
We have just over 5,000 MW of wind energy connected to the electricity grid. Another four thousand have secured, or applied for, planning permission which could get us close to our existing 9,000 MW target.
MKO’s detailed and painstaking analysis maps every single household and business in Ireland, identifies every environmentally protected area, every river, lake and stream, develops a coherent national approach on landscape and identifies the total space left in Ireland for onshore wind energy development.
Out of this area — roughly 1,302 square kilometres or less than 2 per cent of the country – the authors estimate, conservatively, that at least another 6,000 MW of onshore wind energy could be produced beyond the current 9,000 MW target.
“Ireland has significant additional potential to harness our indigenous onshore wind energy resource,” said Brian Keville, Managing Director of MKO Ireland and lead author of the report.
“This analysis clearly demonstrates that a significant amount of onshore wind energy can be delivered in just two per cent of the country’s land mass, while taking account of planning and environmental constraints and design requirements.”
There are still challenges.
Some of the most suitable locations identified are in areas with a weak electricity grid network. That is why investing in upgrading our grid is so important, to get affordable, clean, energy from where it is produced to where it is needed.
Other locations might be difficult to develop at the right cost. That is why the renewable energy industry, has been calling — for five years — for a cross-departmental and independently chaired task-force to identify how we can lower prices.
They may be big challenges, but the prize is big too — energy independence.
“There is no doubt that Ireland is a wind energy success story, particularly in onshore wind,” the Taoiseach recently told the Dáil. “but because of a lot of controversy around locations in certain aspects that narrative does not often get told.
“We get a greater share of our electricity, 35% on average, from onshore wind farms than anywhere else in Europe. We are world leaders in integrating renewables onto our grid, which can now take up to 75% of total electricity demand from wind farms.
“Last January, a significant milestone was achieved when the State reached more than 5 GW of installed wind capacity. That is half-way to the State’s 2030 onshore climate action target.”
It is time now to stand up for Irish electricity consumers and onshore wind energy is Ireland’s most affordable source of new electricity. The more wind energy that we can develop, the less we rely on imported fossils fuels, and the better protected Irish families and businesses are from a volatile fossil fuel market.
Every month we see wind energy reducing electricity costs. Tripling our onshore wind capacity, which is possible by delivering our existing pipeline and developing the land identified by MKO, would drive these costs down even further.
We simply cannot build a strong, resilient, low-carbon economy if we are relying on imported expensive fossil fuels.
Our future must be our own, one built on a foundation provided by the clean, affordable and secure energy that only the renewable energy industry can provide.
Ireland’s onshore wind farms, supported by new offshore wind projects, solar, storage and a new generation of advanced interconnectors, will secure the future of a prosperous, competitive, country in which our families and our businesses can thrive.
That’s a prize worth fighting for.
