The results of Ireland’s fourth Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS 4) auction reveal progress but indicate a shortfall in meeting the 2030 renewable energy targets.
According to consultancy Cornwall Insight, the auction secured 960MW of solar and 374MW of onshore wind, showing improvement from previous years.
However, this still leaves Ireland short of the 17GW needed by 2030 to achieve its target of 80% of electricity from renewables.
The existing and contracted capacity projects approximately 4GW of solar and just over 5GW of onshore wind by 2030, falling 4GW short of the required capacity for both technologies.
Experts note that with only two to three auctions remaining, the current pace of procurement may not be sufficient to meet the government’s decarbonisation goals.
