Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Ireland is a world leader in onshore wind, being in the top three per capita of installed onshore wind capacity globally. Building on this hugely successful technology, there will need to be a near doubling of capacity from the current circa 4.7 GW to 9 GW by 2030 in order to meet our climate action targets and support energy independence in the near term.

The latest updates provided to my Department by ESB Networks and EirGrid indicate that approximately 250MW of new wind energy projects have or will be connected to the electricity network this year across 7 projects.

In terms of future projected connections, over 400 MW of wind projects were successful in the second Renewable Electricity Support Scheme auction (RESS) with expected delivery to take place between 2024 and 2025. A further 148 MW of wind energy projects were successful in the RESS 3 auction and will be expected to delivery between 2026 and 2027.

RESS is one of the primary Government policies for facilitating the deployment of renewables including onshore wind and future RESS auctions will in part determine the pipeline of wind energy projects beyond 2027.

The RESS 3 auction volumes underpin the need for a much stronger pipeline of onshore wind and solar projects coming through the grid connection and permitting processes. They also highlight the urgent and critical need for greater alignment between local plans and renewable energy targets to support investment in, and delivery of, renewable energy projects and onshore wind in particular.