Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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49. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if the recently closed offshore wind auction, Tonn Nua is a minimum cost of all electricity produced or consumed; to provide details of the estimated minimum for electricity consumed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68130/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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On 26 November, I was delighted to announce the provisional results of my Department's Tonn Nua offshore wind auction. The result of the highly competitive auction surpassed expectations, with a price of €98.719 per megawatt hour secured from the winning bidder Helvick Head Offshore Wind DAC, a joint venture between ESB and Danish renewable energy developer Ørsted. This price compares very favourably to recent offshore energy auctions in other jurisdictions and the price secured in Ireland's recent onshore RESS 5 auction. It is also significantly lower than the €114 average wholesale electricity price in Ireland to date in 2025.

The auction has secured 900 megawatts of clean energy, enough to power almost 1 million homes. It will save 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year after its construction, making a sizable contribution to Ireland's wider climate and renewable electricity targets.

The cost to consumers of electricity used is determined by the tariffs charged by individual electricity suppliers. Consumers can save on their electricity costs by regularly shopping around for the best tariff rates available and there are a number of comparison sites to help consumers identify the best tariffs and to make switching easier. Tariffs charged by suppliers are influenced to a large degree by prices on the wholesale electricity market.

The winners of the Tonn Nua auction will be required to sell the electricity they generate into the wholesale electricity market. Reports have previously shown that the price on wholesale markets decreases on days with the most wind energy and so the Tonn Nua site will further contribute to that positive effect.

As a two-way contract for difference, the Tonn Nua strike price serves to determine whether transfer payments are made, by reference to wholesale market prices. On days when wholesale prices are higher than the strike price, the supplier makes a transfer payment to the PSO, and vice versa when wholesale prices are lower than the strike price.