Wind Energy Ireland has welcomed the announcement that four wind farms have won contracts in the fourth auction under the Government's Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS 4).

The projects successful in the auction will deliver 374 MW of the 3,800 MW of new onshore wind energy required by the Climate Action Plan to be in place by 2030. The auction results show that 1,146 GWh of wind energy were successful alongside 925 GWh of solar energy.

Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland said: "The provisional results of the Government’s auction represent a positive step towards delivering the Climate Action Plan. The wind and solar projects which were successful in today’s auction deserve to be congratulated and will help to decarbonise our energy system.

"These projects are playing their part in Ireland’s energy revolution which will deliver more affordable, clean and secure electricity to our homes, businesses and local communities."

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The average price of wind energy was €90.47 per megawatt hour, while the average price of solar energy was €104.76 per megawatt hour. These prices are lower than some had anticipated which is positive news for Irish electricity consumers. The average wholesale electricity price in Ireland over May to July was around €110 per megawatt hour.

Cunniffe said: "This auction's price for wind energy is substantially below the current average wholesale electricity prices and demonstrates that renewable energy can be good for the planet and good for your pocket too.

"We very much welcome the changes introduced by Government to the design of the auction, such as new measures to reduce the impact of grid and planning delays, which have allowed projects to bid in for a contract at a competitive price to deliver value for consumers. We are seeing the positive effects of those new measures in today's results."

Wind Energy Ireland has called again on Government to examine ways to increase the volume of renewable energy entering future auctions.

The industry has continually called for further investment in An Bord Pleanála (ABP), the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) and local authority planning departments to put in place a planning system that can quickly, but thoroughly assess applications for renewable energy projects.

Wind Energy Ireland has also highlighted the need to have a strengthened electricity grid in place to distribute energy that will be produced by new wind farms to our local communities.