Onshore and offshore wind has provided 30 per cent of our electricity needs so far this year, according to Wind Energy Ireland. It could provide substantially more according to the body – which represent the industry – if issues with the electricity grid could be addressed. It claims that 14 per cent of wind generated electricity has been effectively wasted because of capacity problems with the grid.
Money does not seem to be the problem. The outgoing Government has committed €1 billion to grid improvements and billions more has been promised on the election trail
The biggest obstacle, according to the industry, is the planning system. The WHI warns that targets for wind energy generation set for 2030 may not be achieved until 2044 due to planning-related delays and the problem will be exacerbated by older wind farms reaching the end of their existing planning permission between now and 2030.
The coming into force of the Planning and Development Act is expected to address some of the causes of delay by streamlining the process and putting limits on the scope and nature of objections and in particular judicial reviews. But it will not take away the right of people to object – and as long as they do not see how the development of wind farms is in their own interest they will continue to do so.
Despite all the advances made in wind energy production here we still have – by some measures – the most expensive electricity in the European Union. A significant reason is that the low cost of wind energy is not passed on to consumers because of the marginal pricing system under which wind energy suppliers to the grid get the same price as the most expensive fossil fuel plant supplying electricity on any given day.
Wind energy may dampen electricity prices, but it has not brought them down significantly. The main beneficiaries of the system include some of the wind energy provides, though it is an issue they choose not to highlight. To get wider support for wind energy a route to lower prices for energy consumers needs to be found.