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Home | Wind energy cut spending on gas by €2B last year

Posted 2 years ago | 2 minute read

Wind energy cut spending on gas by €2B last year

Just over a third of electricity across Ireland was generated by wind last year, resulting in significant savings on gas costs.

The report, published on 13 January, found that in total 34% of power came from wind farms around the country, up four points on a year earlier.

Without wind energy Ireland would have had to spend an additional €1.65B on gas for power generation in 2022 and an extra €340M on carbon credits to produce electricity by burning that gas. The savings were particularly significant on days with extremely high gas prices and large volumes of wind energy on the electricity system. On a single day – Tuesday 8 March – the combination of high winds and soaring gas prices delivered a total avoided cost of €43M in just 24 hours.

Source: Baringa

In total 13,213GWh was produced by wind last year, up from 11,566GWh a year earlier. The record level of wind generation was set in 2020, at 13,696 GWh.

Under Government targets, Ireland is aiming to have 80% of its electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030. Up to 8GW of onshore and 5GW of offshore wind must be connected to the grid by 2030 to achieve it.

GridBeyond Managing Director Mark Davis said:

“The faster we can build and connect renewable energy onto the electricity system the more secure we make Ireland’s energy supply, the more money we put back in your pocket and the more we cut our carbon emissions.

“But in addition to investment in renewables technologies it is important that investments are made in the flexible technologies that can support the system when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. At GridBeyond we are working with clients across Ireland, from large industry with flexible load to owners and operators of battery storage to do exactly that.”

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