The country’s solar capacity has jumped almost 300% since 2023, according to Solar Ireland’s annual report “‘Scale of Solar 2026”.<\/p>\n
It shows that in the 12 months to the end of May the equivalent of 460,000 homes were powered by Ireland’s total connected solar capacity.<\/p>\n
During the same period, Ireland added 1 gigawatt of solar capacity.<\/p>\n
1 gigawatt can power around 10 million 100 watt lightbulbs or around 100 million low energy LED lights.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9’s Morning Ireland, the CEO of Solar Ireland Ronan Power said by the end of the year solar will have about 3 gigawatts of connected capacity, while wind currently has around 5 gigawatts.<\/p>\n
“In real terms that means over the last four years we’ve gone from effective standing start in the solar industry to get to that scale and the climate action target set for 2030 put the sector to try and drive towards 8 gigawatts,” Ronan Power said..<\/p>\n
“So all indicators would say that with the current run rate that we have, that we’re likely to get to that 8 gigawatts and become an even more significant part of the Irish energy and the Irish energy mix,” he said.<\/p>\n
The solar sector’s lobby group CEO said that they have seen a rise in demand residential solar as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
However he noted that the demand has been there for quite some time.<\/p>\n
“I think demand is being driven by an electrification strategy where we’re trying to decarbonise our electrical infrastructure here in Ireland,” said Mr Power.<\/p>\n