The Irish government on Tuesday approved the final results of the country’s second Renewable Electricity Support Scheme 2 (RESS 2) auction, which will facilitate the deployment of more than 1.9 GW of fresh wind and solar power capacity.
The tender was completed in May and resulted in 80 projects securing contracts with a guaranteed price for power for up to 16.5 years. The average strike price across the winning bids stood at EUR 97.87 (USD 102.05) per MWh, as compared to EUR 74.08/MWh in the inaugural 2020 round.
The bulk of the awarded capacity, totalling some 1,534 MW, is for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, whereas 414 MW was left for onshore wind coming from 11 schemes. The selected projects, which were provisionally approved by state-owned electric power transmission operator Eirgrid, are due to be completed between 2023 and 2025.
The combined annual output of the future plants is estimated to be 2,748 GWh.
In its first renewable energy auction held in 2020, Ireland awarded 1.28 GW of solar and onshore wind capacity. The country intends to hold five similar rounds between 2020 and 2025 to back its 80% renewable energy goal by 2030.
The new capacity that will be contracted via the RESS 2 scheme will lift Ireland’s installed renewable power generation capacity by almost 20%, the government noted.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.043)
Source: renewablesnow
