Everytime an Irish wind turbine spins – it takes expensive fossil fuels off the system, says CEO of Wind Energy Ireland
IT doesn’t help with the biting cold - but almost half of Ireland’s power was provided by wind in November.
A new report shows that wind energy provided 48 per cent of Ireland’s electricity in November 2022, making it the number one source of electricity in Ireland last month.
The latest figures, published by Wind Energy Ireland, mean that wind energy has supplied one third of Ireland’s leccy demand this year.
This was the best November on record for the volume of electricity produced by Irish wind farms.
Writing in the Irish Sun on Sunday today, Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, says having Irish generators producing power without burning imported fossil fuels means we can cut our carbon emissions and fuel imports.
RISING COSTS
THE war in Ukraine and the increased cost of energy puts new focus on the benefits of Ireland’s growing wind energy industry for Irish families.
READ MORE OPINION
Last month, Irish wind farms provided nearly half of the country’s electricity — and over the year to date have supplied more than a third of our power demand.
We spend a million euros an hour importing gas from Britain for our energy.
Every time a wind turbine is spinning, it is pushing those expensive imported fossil fuels off the system and then lowering wholesale electricity prices.
On the days with the most wind power on the system last month, the price of electricity was a third less than the average monthly cost.
Most read in The Irish Sun
In Ireland we suffer because we rely too heavily on imported fossil fuels.
This puts us at the mercy of international developments such as wars and sky-rocketing gas prices. That is what is driving up our bills and putting the security of our energy supply at risk.
The answer is to build more wind farms, on and offshore, as quickly as we can. Irish power, creating jobs at home and powering our own communities.
Wind energy has many advantages. First, it is clean. The electricity produced by a wind turbine creates none of the carbon emissions that drive the climate emergency.
Second, it is efficient. When you burn coal, oil, or gas to create electricity, a huge amount of energy is lost in the process. Wind energy, on the other hand, is 100 per cent efficient at turning wind into electricity.
INDUSTRY EMPLOYMENT
Third, the Irish wind energy industry employs well over 5,000 people across the country and, last year, wind farms invested more than €4.3million in local communities across 19 counties in rural Ireland.
This was used to support a variety of local projects, ranging from education initiatives and sports clubs to installing solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades for community buildings.
The faster we can build and connect renewable energy on to the electricity system, the more secure we make your energy supply, the more money we can put back in your pocket and the lower we can make our carbon emissions.
While we have made a lot of progress in developing our wind energy, the reality is we need to do much more to continue lowering prices and emissions.
COASTAL COMMUNITIES
While we are working to build the next generation of onshore wind farms, our members are hard at work planning major new offshore wind farms, which we hope to see completed before the end of the decade.
These will transform our energy system and will be a big step towards an energy-independent Ireland, a country that is exporting, not importing, energy.
It will also mean enormous investment in our coastal communities and the creation of a whole new industry that will provide jobs and opportunities right around the island.
Russia followed their brutal invasion of Ukraine with the weaponisation of gas supply. This winter, Europe is under threat because our energy supply is under threat.
PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE IN DEFENDING IRELAND
This means real hardship for those families across the continent who struggle to pay bills that, ultimately, end up funding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
If we can realise our potential, if the Government will help us to build more wind farms, and build them faster, we can play a critical role in defending Ireland, and Europe, from similar threats in the future.
Not with guns or tanks, but with wind turbines producing the energy we need to, one day, drive gas off our electricity system.
We are ready to play our part.