The process for developing privately-run wind and solar farms is changing, leading to a gap in projects being completed.
Industry experts have recently stated that no new renewable energy will come onto the national grid for the next two years!
Currently, over 30% of Ireland’s electricity comes from renewable sources. The government is aiming to increase this 70% by 2030. This ambitious target is mainly dependant on increasing private wind farm and solar farm operators, who will, in turn, sell their energy to the national grid.
A spokesperson from the Irish Wind Energy Association said that there could be an 18 months delay for new sources of green energy coming to the national grid if there is a change in how this transaction operates.
The Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (Refit) is due to end in March 2020 and is to be replaced with an auction-based system called the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (Ress) later in the year.
The spokesperson said that it will take some time for the new scheme to get going properly and that this could almost put renewable energy projects to a standstill.
“You’re looking at a gap of as much as a year, maybe even a little bit more between the last Refit wind farm being completed, constructed, and the first Ress wind farm or solar farm being constructed.” - Justin Moran (Spokesperson from Irish Wind Energy Association)
David Maguire, chairman of the Irish Solar Energy Association, said it could be spring 2022 before new energy comes onto the grid.
Under the new Ress auction system, projects will compete against each other to provide energy cheaply. The first auction is not even expected to begin until at least Q2 2020.
Source: http://bit.ly/2kwjC3j
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