“Yesterday was a good day for the Irish renewables industry; with the level of supported renewables capacity set to grow by over a quarter in the next 2-3 years. 796 megawatts of solar projects securing contracts will grab the headlines but the wind industry is not a loser here. While the capacity of winning projects was lower, 479 megawatts, higher wind capacity factors mean that nearly twice the volume of onshore wind output will be supported than solar.
The average published prices obscures the variation in the individual bid prices. Having modelled Irish solar projects, it’s clear that developers placed reasonably lean bids to secure contracts. A lot of the wind projects are likely to be operating under less generous pricing than under previous Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff (REFIT) contracts."
Did you know we at pv Europe/Photovoltaik are still doing our pv Guided Tours this year? Because of how things are, they are in a slightly different format, but the level of competence is as high as ever! Have a look at our most recent video: Kostal: Clever combination of efficient devices
Mr Bolger went on to say that the average price across all projects "is higher than the pure solar average price. This suggests that several higher-priced solar projects didn’t or couldn’t win in the solar category and secured contracts in the all projects category.
The fact that Irish renewables auction delivered higher prices than recent renewable auctions in other jurisdictions may raise some questions around project costs in Ireland. The decision to not include inflation meant that operational cost elements of a bid could increase 20 to 30 per cent. That may need reconsideration for future auctions.
The focus for many now shifts to ESB Networks delivering connections to meet the RESS delivery deadlines.” (mfo)
