Ireland signs European Wind Charter and makes pledge to deliver on wind energy targets

The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan has announced that Ireland has signed up to a European Wind Charter which seeks to develop and improve the conditions necessary for the delivery of wind energy targets. The charter, which considers both onshore and offshore wind, focuses on a range of areas, including, National Energy and Climate Plans, wind auctions, governance, regulation, and equipment manufacturing.

The charter builds upon the recent European Wind Power Action Plan published by the European Commission last October, which aims to support EU companies in the wind sector and improve their competitiveness. Renewable wind energy is seen as an important resource for Europe's decarbonisation plans and is potentially the largest domestic source of electricity that can replace volatile imported fossil fuels.

As part of the European Wind Charter, Ireland has also signed a voluntary ‘wind pledge’ committing to the delivery of wind energy targets for the period 2024-2026, as well as pledging indicative targets for 2030 and post-2030.

The pledge’s indicative targets for onshore generation of 9GW by 2030 compliments the commitments to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2023 which seeks to transform Ireland into an international leader in the development and generation of high-quality renewable energy. Ireland is expecting to reach 4,812MW of onshore wind by year end and the State’s onshore wind sector will continue to be one of the leading cost-effective technologies to achieve its renewable electricity targets, whilst awaiting the development of offshore wind.

From an offshore perspective, the pledge’s indicative targets for 2030 and post-2030, complements the recent publication by the North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC) of long-term plans by its members, including Ireland, towards the development of offshore wind up to 2040. Ireland’s total offshore wind target for 2040 (including the Atlantic basin) remains 20GW.

Commenting on the European Wind Charter and pledge, Minister Ryan said:

The key commitments outlined in the European Wind Charter are:

• ensure a sufficient, robust and predictable pipeline for the deployment of wind energy, including through updated NECPs (National Energy and Climate Plans) coherent with the more ambitious Fit-for-55 renewable energy targets, faster and more predictable permitting
• improve, simplify and provide consistency in the design of auctions for wind energy
• ensure that business processes, governance, products and services offered by the undersigning wind sector representatives satisfy high qualitative standards
• improve the predictability of demand and supply through clear auctions
• contribute to a fair and competitive international environment including through the FDI Regulation
• scale up wind equipment manufacturing capacity in EU

Ireland’s onshore wind

Ireland has made considerable progress in decarbonising our electricity sector over the last decade, with a major reason for this being the construction of renewable generation sources and their successful integration into the electricity grid.

Ireland is third in the world for installed wind power capacity per capita, with approximately 4.8GW of onshore wind generation capacity, and is a world leader in the integration of variable renewable electricity onto the grid.

Climate Action Plan 2023 makes Ireland one of the most ambitious countries in the world on climate and provides a detailed plan for taking decisive action to achieve a 51% reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and setting us on a path to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. It includes a series of measures to support Ireland’s renewables programme, including the accelerated delivery of onshore wind, offshore wind, and solar through a competitive framework to reach 80% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Measures for onshore wind include:

• a target 6GW of onshore wind by 2025
• a target 9GW of onshore wind by 2030

The establishment of an Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce, to focus on the development of onshore renewable generation, was a key action under the Climate Action Plan 2023. The Renewable Electricity Spatial Policy Framework (RESPF) is being designed to offer an intended policy basis for a more plan-led approach to the development and generation of onshore renewable electricity and to improve consistency and coherence between national, regional, and local climate action policy, in line with all other planning, environmental, and community considerations.

Policy measures to support onshore renewable electricity generation

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has developed a number of schemes to support the production of renewable energy and so to enable us to meet our 2030 targets. These schemes include the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS), the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS), and the Microgeneration Support Scheme (MSS).

Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce

The establishment of an Accelerating Renewable Electricity Taskforce, to focus on the development of onshore renewable generation, was a key action under the Climate Action Plan 2023. This Taskforce was established in March 2023, with the membership made up of senior officials from relevant departments and State bodies.

The taskforce was established to identify, coordinate, and prioritise the required policies needed to achieve the onshore renewable electricity, and related, targets, and to ensure that barriers to the implementation of such policies are removed or minimised to the greatest extent possible.

Renewable Electricity Support Scheme

The first RESS (Renewable Electricity Support Scheme) auction, RESS 1, which was held in 2020, led to 2022 being a record year for renewable sources being connected to the grid in Ireland. The second RESS auction (RESS 2) is expected to deliver an increase of nearly 20% in Ireland’s renewable electricity generation by 2025. The final results of the third RESS auction (RESS 3) were announced on 11 October. The successful projects represent a 12% increase in Ireland’s renewable energy capacity from current levels. While this represents lower volumes than previous auction rounds, RESS 3 purposely targeted mature, shovel-ready projects that all have planning permission and grid connection offers and are expected to deliver rapidly, by early 2027 at the latest. A fourth, and larger, RESS auction in due to take place in 2024.

A key feature of RESS is that all successful projects must establish a Community Benefit Fund to be used for the wider cultural, environmental, and economic well-being of the local community. The funds are intended to enable the local community to share in the benefits of renewable electricity generation. The department encourages all projects to establish a Community Benefit Fund, including CPPAs (Corporate Power Purchase Agreements), as these funds play an important role in enhancing public acceptance of the developments.

Spatial planning

The Renewable Electricity Spatial Policy Framework (RESPF) is being designed to offer an intended policy basis to offer a more plan-led approach to the development and generation of onshore renewable electricity and improve consistency and coherence between national, regional, and local climate action policy, in line with all other planning, environmental, and community considerations.

Ireland’s offshore wind ambitions

The Irish Government has been accelerating policy on renewable offshore wind energy. In mid-2021, the government launched the National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF), which is Ireland’s first comprehensive marine spatial planning framework. The Maritime Area Planning (MAP) Act 2021 was enacted in December 2021, which established a new licensing and development management regime in the maritime area, administered by a new Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA), in conjunction with An Bord Pleanála, which is facilitating the development of offshore energy.

In 2022, the Maritime Area Consent (MAC) regime was established under the MAP Act 2021. Following a comprehensive assessment process, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications issued Maritime Area Consents (MACs) to seven offshore renewable energy projects in December 2021, which enabled these projects to begin their pre-planning application engagement with An Bord Pleanála and to participate in Ireland’s first offshore wind auction.

Earlier this year, the results of Ireland’s first offshore wind auction, ORESS 1, underscored the State’s ambitions within offshore renewable wind energy. The hugely competitive price secured – at an average of €86.05/MWh (megawatt hour) – is one of the lowest prices paid by an emerging offshore wind market in the world. Over 3GW of capacity has been procured from four offshore wind projects under ORESS 1, which will deliver over 12TWh (terawatt hours) of renewable electricity per year. This is the largest volume of renewable energy Ireland has ever procured at auction. It is also enough to power over 2.5 million Irish homes with clean electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 1 million tonnes in 2030.

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications chairs the Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce, which is coordinating the full range of activities required to maximise the economic benefits of offshore wind development to the State.

European Wind Power Action Plan

The European Wind Power Action Plan, published by the European Commission in October 2023, sets out immediate actions to be taken together by the European Commission, Member States and industry to support the wind energy sector. It builds on existing policies and legislation and focuses on six main areas:

• acceleration of deployment through increased predictability and faster permitting
• improved auction design
• access to finance
• a fair and competitive international environment
• skills
• industry engagement and Member States commitments

Further information on the action plan is available on the European Commission website.

Schedule of offshore wind auctions to 2030

Last month, as part of a co-ordinated launch with member countries of the North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC), Ireland published a schedule of offshore wind auctions to 2030, totalling over 13GW of capacity to be deployed by 2040. This is in addition to the 3GW awarded in Ireland’s first offshore wind auction, ORESS 1, and exclusive to the maritime basins within the NSEC area (the Irish and Celtic Seas). Ireland’s total offshore wind target for 2040 (including the Atlantic basin) remains 20GW. Ireland plans to meet its offshore 2040 target of 20GW of offshore wind through competitive processes in the period up to 2030, with related construction taking place up to 2040.

Irish Government’s indicative roadmap towards State’s next offshore wind auction

To accompany the publication of the NSEC auction timetable last November, the Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce published an ‘indicative roadmap’ outlining a timetable towards Ireland’s next offshore wind energy auction – ORESS 2.1. To align with available onshore grid capacity, ORESS 2.1 will take place off Ireland’s south coast and will procure up to 900MW of offshore wind. The roadmap sets out a number of steps towards Ireland’s next offshore wind auction, which are modelled on several different scenarios.

Further information on the ORESS 2.1 roadmaps is available to view on the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications website.

Future Framework for Offshore Wind

The long-term model and vision for offshore renewable energy in Ireland is called the Future Framework. A draft Future Framework policy for post-2030 deployment of offshore wind will be published for consultation in January 2024. A final version will be approved by Government and co-published with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s National Industrial Strategy for Offshore Wind in March 2024.

National Industrial Strategy for Offshore Wind

The development of a National Industrial Strategy for Offshore Wind was approved by Government decision in May 2023. The overarching objective of the strategy will be to ensure that Ireland maximises the economic benefits associated with Government targets to deliver 37GW of offshore wind by 2050. A strategic roadmap will be published in the first half of 2024 to coincide with the publication of the Future Framework.

• Supply Chains – Identification of measures to maximise Ireland’s participation in domestic and international OWE supply chain, including an assessment of risks and opportunities
• RD&I (Research, Development and Innovation) – Setting out the main opportunities for Ireland in leveraging its intrinsic innovation potential as a small, open economy with very strong RD&I pedigree. The ambition is to develop a globally recognised OWE RD&I ecosystem in Ireland to promote collaboration between SMEs, multinationals, and further and higher education institutes

Climate Action Plan 2023

Climate Action Plan 2023, launched in December 2022, is the second annual update to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2019. This plan is the first to be prepared under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, and following the introduction of economy-wide Carbon Budgets and Sectoral Emissions Ceilings. Implementation of the Climate Action Plan will create jobs, new economic opportunities and protect people and the planet. You can view Climate Action Plan 2023 and its annex of actions on the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications website: www.gov.ie/climateaction.

Ireland has now moved to a plan-led approach to deliver our offshore wind targets. The government is delivering our climate and energy ambitions for offshore wind energy through a number of overlapping phases:

• Phase One, which corresponds to the first offshore renewable electricity auction (ORESS 1)
• Phase Two, an accelerated work programme, focusing on near-term delivery based on technology with proven scalability in other jurisdictions and which will procure the additional offshore wind capacity required to meet Government’s 2030 target; and
• the fully plan-led Future Framework