Provisional results from the fourth round of the Irish Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS 4) reveal that approximately 1,334 MW of onshore renewable electricity won support.
Of that total, 960MW of solar PV and 374MW onshore wind was procured at an average auction price of €96.85 (£81.73) per MWh, lower than the two previous auctions. The generation-weighted average price for solar projects was €104.76 per MWh.
According to the Irish government, the provisional RESS 4 results compare well with other recent renewable energy auctions in Europe, in terms of both volume procured and auction prices. Final results will be released later this month.
Energy market analytics firm Aurora Energy Research said RESS 4 was “surprisingly” successful, attributing that success to the expansion of eligibility requirements that allowed projects under judicial review to enter the auction.
The changes, including new risk provisions, come after the Irish Solar Energy Association (ISEA) warned that the potential success of the RESS 3 was stunted by an “overly rigid” design and “avoidable systemic failures”.
The Irish government says RESS 4 secures an increase of over 20% in Ireland’s renewable energy capacity. According to Irish minister for the environment, climate and communications, Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s future prosperity lies in renewable energy.
He added: “Delivering on our ambition through RESS and other policy measures will create tens of thousands of new green jobs for communities across the State and attract investment.”
Solar success for Neoen
French independent power producer (IPP) Neoen won 170MWp of solar projects in the auction: Johnstown North Solar (29MWp, in County Wicklow) and Garr Solar (141MWp, in County Offaly).
The two solar power plants are scheduled to be commissioned in 2027 and 2028 respectively. Neoen has an existing Irish portfolio of over 100MW, included 58MWp of solar plants in operation.
Xavier Barbaro, Neoen’s chairman and chief executive officer, pointed out that this is the company’s third RESS success. He continued: “We have built over the last few years a portfolio of high-quality projects in the country, which will help to meet its growing need for low-carbon energy. In Ireland, as in the rest of the world, we are proud to be accelerating the energy transition.”
Neoen has committed to implementing a community benefit fund that will support a programme supporting local initiatives. The first RESS auction, in 2020, established a Community Benefit Fund (CBF) scheme that has carried through to RESS 4. The CBFs require generators to pay €2 per MWh generated annually to funds for communities living in nearby for the duration of the support scheme.
Outlook improved but Ireland off track for CAP24 goals
Last year, onshore wind and solar volumes provisionally procured in the third RESS auction represented a 12% increase on Ireland’s existing renewable capacity at the time. Although 3GW of projects were eligible to compete, only 1GW applied to the auction.
Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2024 (CAP24) sets out an ambition for 80% of Ireland’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030. For Aurora, RESS 4 mitigates the lack of success in RESS 3, making Ireland’s capacity targets seem “more achievable”, although the country is still short by 1.9TWh, assuming offshore wind projects deliver as expected.
Indeed, qualification volumes in RESS 4 were still lower than expected, with the original procurement target of 2,500GWh to 4,500GWh reduced to 1,300GWh to 2,500GWh prior to the auction, resulting in a provisionally successful procurement of 2,071GWh.
Steph Unsworth, Senior Research Associate at Aurora Energy Research commented: “This auction was surprisingly successful, procuring four large scale onshore wind assets amounting to 1.1TWh, despite concerns over the reduction to the auction cap price rendering onshore wind uneconomic.
“Despite a lower all projects average price than RESS3, an average price of €104.76/MWh for solar PV and €90.47/MWh for onshore wind indicates that this auction cleared close to the respective cap prices for these technologies.”
Still, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) stated that Ireland achieved an “unprecedented” decrease in energy-related emissions with a 7.6% annual reduction last year, and a 21% decrease in electricity-related emissions—despite a large increase in population and energy use.
