Mr. Justin Moran:

First, if we look at the track record of the onshore wind energy projects, since 2000 these onshore wind farms have saved Irish electricity consumers about €1 billion. Between 2020 and 2023, Irish onshore wind farms saved consumers around €320 per person. They do this by pushing gas off the system. What is setting the price and driving the prices up is our dependence on imported fossil fuels. This is what is driving electricity prices up and it will continue to drive electricity prices up while we allow gas to set the price. Every Irish electricity consumer will lose out as a result.

One of the updates that should be received from our office monthly - in fact, it should be received today - is a dashboard we produce showing the amount of electricity on the system in the previous month. It also shows the wholesale price of electricity on the windiest days, the average wholesale electricity price in the preceding month and the wholesale electricity price on the days when we must rely on fossil fuels. On the days we rely on fossil fuels, the wholesale electricity price is generally about twice as much as when we have onshore wind on the system. I think people are conscious that having wind on the system pushes gas off. What they may not be as familiar with is that wind energy pushes off the most expensive gas generator on the system at that time, and this is what helps to lower the wholesale electricity price. If we can deliver offshore wind energy, therefore, we would hope to see this continue to happen. One thing I do agree with the Senator on is that we need to find ways to deliver renewable electricity in Ireland more cheaply and more affordably. This is something we would be keen to work on with people in future. It will certainly be a priority for us.