{"id":468025,"date":"2026-05-26T16:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468025\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:06:08","slug":"solar-energy-surges-as-grid-taps-into-irelands-of-sunny-spell-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468025\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar energy surges as grid taps into Ireland\u2019s of sunny spell \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s early summer heatwave is boosting solar power<\/a> generation but much of the power generated by natural resources is a risk of draining away because of inefficient systems, an industry group claims. <\/p>\n

Solar Ireland said the sun delivered as much as one-third of Ireland\u2019s energy needs on Monday afternoon. However, it added that \u201ctoo much clean, renewable energy is being wasted\u201d because the national grid and related infrastructure is \u201cnot keeping pace with record levels of generation [and] limiting the full benefits solar can deliver for consumers, energy security and affordability\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the umbrella group for the solar industry, a third of the electricity needed to power Ireland was being generated by the sun at 1:30pm on Monday. Solar farms reported similarly high figures on Sunday afternoon, with the spike seeing the sun providing almost the same amount of power as imported gas.<\/p>\n

Ronan Power, of Solar Ireland, said it had been a \u201cfantastic week\u201d for solar energy in Ireland, adding that it highlighted \u201cjust how quickly the sector is growing and contributing to our energy system\u201d.<\/p>\n

The State\u2019s first utility-scale solar farm was connected to the grid only in 2022, and \u201calready we are seeing solar provide a significant share of electricity demand\u201d, Power said. <\/p>\n

He suggested the surge in energy coming from the sky \u201calso highlights an increasingly important challenge\u201d with \u201cparts of the system struggling to absorb all the clean, renewable energy available\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Power, companies capable of generating solar energy at scale \u201csometimes have to turn off renewable generation because the system is not always capable of handling all the clean energy being produced\u201d. <\/p>\n

He pointed out that while the grid \u201cremains a critical part of the solution\u201d, there are other challenges facing the sector. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at the challenge with fresh eyes and focus on system optimisation, using the technology already available and the strong public support behind the energy transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

He welcomed a commitment to enhanced grid investment from the Government but said the priority should be the acceleration of delivery \u201cand ensuring grid infrastructure, system services and operational measures keep pace with renewable deployment\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the sun was the big provider of renewable energy for much of the week so far, last month another renewable<\/a>, wind, was doing the heavy lifting, accounting for 38 per cent of all electricity generated in Ireland in April, making it the biggest contributor to Ireland\u2019s fuel mix, according to data from EirGrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Its recent figures show that, overall, 48 per cent of electricity came from renewable sources in April, with 6 per cent of that generated by large grid-scale solar farms.<\/p>\n

It was the third consecutive month where renewable generation met around half of electricity demand. EirGrid said: \u201cSignificant progress continues to be made\u201d in integrating renewables on to Ireland\u2019s power system.<\/p>\n

It noted that investments it has made have enabled up to 75 per cent of electricity to be generated from variable renewable sources at any one time. EirGrid said it has a \u201csignificant work programme\u201d under way to increase this to 95 per cent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s early summer heatwave is boosting solar power generation but much of the power generated by natural resources…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27796,61,60,43,16389,7617],"class_list":["post-468025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-eirgrid","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-renewables","tag-solar-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}