What do we do when theres not enough grid for the wind?
Renewable energy firms are scaling up investment in Ireland, but the power grid is unable to handle it. German energy giant RWE has around a gigawatt (GW) of projects under development, including onshore wind, offshore turbines and battery storage (for excess energy). Norwegian renewables firm Statkraft has just confirmed it is preparing bids for six wind farms, totalling 320 megawatts (MW) of capacity. And ESB and Norways Equinor are currently exploring five sites off the Irish coast, which they say could generate enough wind energy to power four million homes. The Governments Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) which aims to generate 70pc of energy from renewables by 2030 has done much to attract investors. But a 2020 report by Energy Storage Ireland and the Irish Wind Energy Association said wind farms are being instructed to reduce the amount of power they generate because the system cant cope with the volumes. Read More  In 2019, enough renewable electricity to power the city of Galway was lost, mainly due to limits on the amount of renewable energy the system can use and localised constraints on transporting the power to where it is needed. Cathal Hennessy, Managing Director at RWE Ireland, told the Irish Independent that grid infrastructure is the most pressing issue facing developers. Grid is critical. Were very lucky that Eirgrid, in all fairness to them, have been at the forefront of globally of connecting renewable energy projects and we have the highest penetration of onshore wind of any market in the world.  And all this is coming at a time when Eirgrid, which manages the flow of power around the island, is warning of record high energy demand. It has estimated that data centres will consume around a third of Irelands electricity demand by 2028. The Governments 70pc renewables target would require a further 5GW of capacity to be developed. Most onshore wind farms generate in the tens of megawatts, at most. Offshore wind can generate more, but costs more to develop. Ireland has only one offshore wind farm, SSE Airtricitys 25 megawatt (MW) Arklow Bank, off the coast of Co Wicklow. The ESB-Equinor plans include a floating wind turbine off the coast of Kerry and Clare which, alongside a fixed-bottom project closer to shore, could generate a combined 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of energy, enough to power around 1.5 million homes. The Government has fast-tracked seven other offshore projects through the initial planning stage, including the 1GW Codling Wind Park off the Wicklow coast and ESBs Oriel venture with Belgiums Parkwind off the Louth coast. RWE Ireland is currently piloting a 12m airborne at Bangor Erris in north Mayo, with European funding, which it hopes can piggyback on offshore or onshore wind farms to help generate even more. It essentially involves tethering a kite or unmanned aircraft to a cable to capture wind at altitudes above 200 metres. This is a very innovative technology, said Mr Hennessy. Its very new. We could see this being deployed and generating significant low-cost renewable electricity in parts of the country where we wouldnt be able to deploy onshore wind, or possibly on an offshore perspective as well, coupled with offshore wind farms.  Ireland is in a precarious position when it comes to security of supply, according to a leading renewables expert. Another major issue is the lack of interconnection. When the wind is blowing very strong in Ireland or its very sunny, the power prices go down and that  from an investors perspective  is a significant risk, explains Mr Hennessy. We need to be able to bring increased liquidity to the market so we can sell that power, trade that power, across into continental Europe.  Statkraft Irelands managing director, Kevin ODonovan, said boosting wind and solar energy generation will make power outages less likely in future, and lower prices for consumers. Our pricing has historically been high because our security of supply is extraordinarily weak. We depend on importing almost all of our energy needs through fossil fuels, he told the Irish Independent. More renewables on the system is actually going to result in an improvement on our pricing.  Last year the government announced the results of the first renewable energy auction under the RESS, which awarded almost 1300MW worth of solar power and onshore wind capacity to 82 projects, 19 (onshore) wind and 63 solar. The first offshore wind auction will take place later this year.