The Government’s flagship Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) was launched in 2020 and will be regarded by many as a success.

RESS is a competitive auction-based scheme where prospective developers of renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar farms, bid for Government-backed support for a period of 16 years.

So far there have been two auctions, RESS 1 in 2020 and RESS 2 in 2022, and there are more planned.

Results

A total of 267 projects applied to participate in RESS 1 and 2. However, only 169 solar and onshore wind projects were successful, amounting to 3,248MW of renewable generation capacity. Many of these projects, in particular wind farms, are owned by semi-State bodies while a number of these are community projects.

As the map outlines, Sligo is the only county in Ireland not to have secured RESS-funding.

Price

The average bid price for all projects in the first auction was €74/MWh but this rose to €97.87/MWh in the second auction. There was a specific auction for community projects which commanded a higher price.

The key difference with RESS is that it mandates renewable generators to pay electricity customers when market prices are higher than their bid prices.

This negates the need for a windfall tax on RESS-funded generators.

Solar

As Table 1 outlines, 134 solar farms have successfully secured funding across 21 counties and will have the capacity to generate around 2,351MW of electricity. This represents an area of over 10,500ac or 0.01% of Ireland’s utilised agricultural area. These developments range from 0.5MW to 120MW in size. Cork has the highest number of successful projects, totalling 26 solar farms and around 1,260ac worth of panels.

This is closely followed by Wexford with 17 solar farms at 1,000ac. Joint third come Kildare, Meath and Tipperary with 12 successful projects. However, Meath represents the largest area of panels, at nearly 1,800ac due to a number of large developments.

Onshore wind

In total, 35 wind farm projects across 15 counties secured funding through RESS and will have the capacity to generate around 897MW of electricity. Mayo is set to see six new wind farms with a generation capacity of 107MW developed. Donegal is set to see five wind farms developed, generating up to 91MW. However, Offaly, which will see just four RESS funded wind farms developed, will have a generation capacity of 318MW due to a number of very large developments.

It’s difficult to determine the number of turbines that will be built across the 35 wind farms considering that each project is very different. However, taking an average wind turbine size of 2.5MW, this would require 359 new turbines to be built.

Community funding and rent

While there are many mixed opinions on wind and solar farms, they are significant contributors to rural Ireland in terms of rent, community funds, rates and employment.

With solar alone, taking an average rental agreement between farmers and developers to be around €1,000/ac per year, over €10m in rent will be paid each year upon development of the projects.

Wind farms are difficult to put a number on. While the project may only have secured funding now, the landowner’s rent could have been negotiated years ago so the amount varies accordingly. On average however, a landowner could expect around €25,000 in rent per turbine per year. Many Bord na Móna, ESB Networks and Coillte projects are on State-owned land, however.

In addition, RESS projects must pay a minimum of €1,000 to each household located within 1km of the wind farm.

As well as rent and household payments, all RESS funded projects must pay €2 into a community benefit fund for every megawatt-hour of electricity they produce. Taking into account the average capacity factor and efficiency of wind and solar farms, at €2/MWh, this would equate to around €10m in funding to local communities each year.

Construction timelines

All projects are required to have full planning permission when applying for RESS funding. RESS 1 and 2 projects must be operational by the end of December 2023 and 2025 respectively.

While there are considerable challenges with supply chains, many RESS 1 projects are in construction or early stages of development. The majority of RESS 2 projects have yet to start.