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\nThe report focused on savings as a result of solar and wind power generation<\/p>\n
Renewable energy from wind and solar reduced the gas and carbon costs of generating electricity on the island of Ireland last year by more than \u20ac1.5 billion, according to a new report.<\/p>\n
Almost 93%, or \u20ac1.4 billion of these savings, was accounted for by wind.<\/p>\n
The production of electricity on solar farms made up the remaining \u20ac115 million saved on gas and carbon credit costs in 2025.<\/p>\n
The figures come from a new report called Cutting Carbon, Cutting Bills.<\/p>\n
It was commissioned by Wind Energy Ireland and produced by Barringa, an international consultancy group.<\/p>\n
A total of \u20ac1.1 billion, or 72%, of the savings accrued in the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland accounted for the remaining \u20ac426 million, or 28% of the savings.<\/p>\n
The report says the availability of such large amounts of renewable electricity shielded consumers across Ireland and Northern Ireland from very volatile international gas prices in 2025.<\/p>\n
The greatest savings were in the winter months, when electricity demand and gas prices were highest.<\/p>\n
February was the most valuable month for wind, with renewables cutting gas and carbon spending by \u20ac225 million in that single month.<\/p>\n
Another important benefit was that greenhouse gas emissions were significantly reduced by not having to burn gas to generate electricity.<\/p>\n
Over 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions were saved or avoided across Ireland and Northern Ireland in 2025.<\/p>\n
The report says this is equivalent to the annual energy-related emissions from about 1.2 million homes.<\/p>\n
\nThe report focused on savings as a result of solar and wind power generation<\/p>\n
These latest savings bring the cumulative amount saved on gas and carbon credit over the past four years to \u20ac6.7 billion.<\/p>\n
Wind Energy Ireland described this as a “staggering” amount.<\/p>\n
Without the development of wind and solar farms this amount would have gone to the global fossil fuel industry, the report says.<\/p>\n
Instead, it was kept at home supporting economic activity on the island of Ireland while helping to make the energy system on the Island cleaner and more efficient.<\/p>\n
Wholesale prices in Ireland are still more than twice as high as they were in 2019.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive of Wind Energy Ireland Noel Cunniffe said: “We cannot be energy secure if we rely on gas markets dominated by the likes of Vladimir Putin. Together, wind and solar are helping to build a true Irish electrostate where we can power ourselves with our own clean, affordable and secure energy.”<\/p>\n
Chief Executive of Solar Ireland Ronan Power said: “Solar power is unique because it is delivered at utility scale as well as on rooftops across homes, businesses, schools, farms, public and community buildings.”<\/p>\n
He added: “That accessibility allows communities to generate their own clean electricity while reducing reliance on imported gas.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, wind energy figures for last month, showed wind farms produced 1,400 gigawatts, or 34% of Ireland’s electricity in January.<\/p>\n
This is one of the strongest January wind performances on record.<\/p>\n
The availability of renewable energy keeps the price of electricity significantly lower than what it might otherwise be for everyone.<\/p>\n
For instance, the average wholesale cost of electricity last year was \u20ac126.95 per megawatt hour.<\/p>\n
But on the days when wind energy generation was highest, the average price of electricity was significantly lower at \u20ac101.84.<\/p>\n
This rose to an average of \u20ac145.84 when wind energy was lowest.<\/p>\n
For the first time ever, Offaly was the number one county for wind generation in January this year, with 179 gigawatts of electricity produced.<\/p>\n
Counties Kerry, Cork, Tyrone and Tipperary were the next four highest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renewable energy from wind and solar reduced the gas and carbon costs of generating electricity on the island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-299093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}