Just 23 renewable electricity projects have been successful in the third round of the Government’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auction, according to provisional results published on Tuesday.

RESS is the Government’s flagship renewable scheme where project developers bid against each other for 15-year State-backed support.

The average support price in the auction was €100.47 per megawatt hour (/MWh), up from of €97.87/MWh for RESS2. Eight projects which submitted an offer price were unsuccessful in the auction.

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Three onshore wind farms were successful, while 20 solar farms were successful in the auction. This equates to around 2,500ac worth of solar farms or 497MW of generation capacity.

Tuesday’s results delivered the smallest volume of renewable energy of any auction to date and for the highest price.

Disappointment

Wind Energy Ireland has described the results of the auction as extremely disappointing and highlighted the need for urgent reform on how we develop wind and solar farms in Ireland.