Ireland

Ireland has given the green light to install a 700 MW, high-voltage direct current submarine power cable between its southern coast and the northwestern coast of France.

The final average price in Ireland’s latest procurement exercise came in at €0.09787 ($0.103)/kWh. Wind developers secured 414 MW in the auction.

The Irish authorities have kicked off a new procurement exercise, together with the commissioning of the first solar park built under the nation’s first renewables auction. French developer Neoen built the 8 MW facility at a location south of Dublin.

The Green Party members of the coalition governing the EU member state are losing patience with the slow progress of a bill they tabled eight months ago to remove the requirement for schools and other public buildings to have planning permission to install panels.

Through the scheme, the Irish government intends to allocate around 380 MW of solar power. Projects of up to 50 kW will be entitled to participate and installations not exceeding 6 kW in size will be given a maximum rebate of €2,400.

French clean power company Neoen, part of the Paris-headquartered Impala conglomerate, is constructing three Irish solar plants with a total generation capacity of 58 MWp and has secured an agreement from Bord Gáis Energy to buy the electricity they will generate.

Industry association SolarPower Europe expects little change in the line-up of Europe’s biggest residential battery markets in four years’ time, with a rush of retrofits as turn-of-the-century solar feed-in tariffs begin to expire, set to keep Germany way ahead of the pack.

Although wind power dominates the renewables scene in the Republic of Ireland and the North – and even natural gas has a bigger role to play – the grid companies of the neighbors have revised up their estimates of how much solar will be needed, after talking to the public and industry.

The move is part of the National Development Plan 2021-2030, which aims to increase the share of renewable electricity in the generation mix up to 80% and to allocate around 15.5 GW of wind and solar capacity through an auction scheme.