Renewable power generated from wind and solar has saved Irish electricity customers as much as €840 million, energy specialists Baringa have said.
The firm’s analysis of how renewables are influencing price has found the financial benefit of developing renewable energy in the Irish market has significantly outweighed all possible costs for consumers “even based on conservative estimates”.
The study commissioned by Wind Energy Ireland (WEI) – which represents the wind sector – said savings produced by Ireland’s reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels “exceeded the expense of support schemes, grid network development and other costs by close to €840 million” since 2000.
Wind farms were credited with just under 98 per cent of these net savings with solar farms contributing the rest.
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Ireland’s wind generation capacity has grown since 2000 from 117 megawatts (MW) to more than 5,000MW installed across the country, while more than 600MW of solar generation has been connected in recent years.
Last year, according to Green Collective data, nearly two-fifths of the country’s electricity came from renewables.
This scaling-up of renewable energy sources since 2000 has also cut Irish spending on fossil fuels by €7.4 billion and prevented production of more than 47 million tonnes of carbon dioxide up to the end of 2023, it says.
Home-grown renewables have also insulated consumers from recent spiralling fuel costs, cutting bills by an average of €320 per person between 2020 and 2023.
Releasing the report to coincide with the opening of WEI’s annual conference in Dublin today, its chief executive Noel Cunniffe said: “It shows every single wind turbine we build and every set of solar panels we install helps Irish families and businesses to save money.
“Since 2021 alone, renewables have displaced almost €4 billion worth of fossil fuels, insulating Irish consumers from the very worst of the impacts of the fossil fuel energy crisis. However, we should still be paying less.”
By maintaining dependency on imported gas “we are letting the price we pay for electricity be dictated to us by international fossil fuel companies. Every hour, Ireland is spending €1 million to import fossil fuels, but there is a viable alternative, a way to keep this money at home,” he said.
“We can build more wind and solar farms, reinforce our electricity grid, electrify our heat and transport systems and work with our EU partners to reform the common electricity market.
“The incoming government can save Irish consumers millions of euros, while also ensuring a clean, secure, domestic energy supply and creating thousands of jobs.”
The Baringa analysis predicts, if gas prices remain high and if Ireland reaches the government target of 80 per cent renewable electricity, consumer bills could fall by a further €610 million from 2030.
When electricity bills are among the highest in Europe it can be hard for families or small businesses struggling to pay bills to feel the benefit of these savings, Mr Cunniffe said.
“The reality is our bills will remain too high for exactly as long as we choose – and it is a choice – to maintain our dependency on imported gas, to allow the CEOs of fossil fuel companies to decide how much a family in Roscrea should pay to charge their car or how much it costs a farm in Monaghan to run a milking parlour.”
He also said the next five years presented an opportunity to make unprecedented progress in moving to relying on locally produced renewables and accelerating the next phase of Ireland’s economic development, while delivering cleaner and more affordable power to homes and businesses by 2030 and laying the foundation for Irish energy independence.
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