Wind power in Ireland – ?100 million in savings for Irish power consumers

These savings are made because wind energy pushes more expensive forms of power generation – like coal and gas – off the market. In fact already in 2011, says the document, the Irish will save €36.6 million thanks to wind turbines.

While these impressive figures speak for themselves, not to be missed by those who still claim that wind energy is over-subsidised is the study’s finding that consumers “pay less through the support mechanisms than the savings they make from lower wholesale power prices”. In other words, even though customers do pay something to support renewables, they still save money overall thanks to wind energy.

The report, ‘The impact of wind on pricing within the Single Electricity Market’, was commissioned by IWEA (Irish Wind Energy Association) in conjunction with Wind Skillnet, was compiled by international strategic and analytical consultancy Redpoint Energy Limited. The ‘Single Electricity Market’ in the title refers to the all-island Irish market.

Last year a literature review EWEA published with Pöyry explored this issue and showed wind could reduce spot power prices by €3 to €23 per MWh.

By Sarah Azau, blog.ewea.org/