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Wind energy made up 24% of total supply in July
Wind energy made up almost a quarter of the country's electricity last month, according to the latest report from Wind Energy Ireland.
There was 786 gigawatt hours of wind energy generated in the month - making it the third biggest July on record.
Cork was the biggest source of energy in the month, with 85 GWh generated, closely followed by Kerry at 84 GWh.
Offaly, Galway and Mayo were also major suppliers, with the five counties delivering more than 40% of the country's total.
"A lot of counties there on the west coast, or the south-west coast where you have a huge amount of available wind energy," said Justin Moran, director of external affairs at Wind Energy Ireland. "Those wind farms are replacing imported fossil fuels."
It means that wind represented almost one-third of all energy generated in the first seven months of the year.
Mr Moran said that this was important in reducing Ireland's emissions, but also in improving energy prices and the country's resilience.
"It helps make Ireland more energy secure and it pushes down wholesale electricity prices, which helps to protect consumers," he said. "The more wind we can get in the system the less we have to rely on expensive imported gas, and the more we can do to continue to push down energy bills for families, for consumers, for businesses that are really hard-pressed at the moment."
The amount of supply coming from wind would also be higher, he said, were it not for infrastructural limitations.
"We're losing more and more of the electricity that we do produce because our existing grid is not strong enough to take the power wind farms produce," he said. "Last year we lost 14% of the electricity we could have produced because wind turbines were forced to switch off or reduce the amount of power they were generating because the grid couldn't take it."
Progress on further developing Ireland's wind energy network has been slow but Mr Moran said there have been signs of improvement in recent times.
That includes an improvement in the speed of decision-making, while the recently updated National Development Plan also commits a significant amount of money to upgrading the country's electricity system.
"We're seeing improvements in decision timelines from An Bord An Bord Pleanala, decision timelines from the Enviromental and Planning Courts - we're hoping that's going to start improving too," he said. "The additional €3.5 billion for grid development announced in the revised National Development Plan, that's really, really important.
"That's the kind of leadership we need to see to transform our electricity system and speed up the delivery of clean power to Irish homes and businesses."
Yesterday major Danish energy firm Ørsted announced plans to raise the equivalent of €8 billion as it faces a major financial challenge. That includes the company's inability to sell a stake in a major wind development off the coast of New York, due to the Trump Administration's hostile policy approach to renewable energy.
Mr Moran said that the shift in policy in the US could have a knock-on effect on Ireland's attempts to ramp up wind energy projects, but it is also a reminder of the importance of doing so.
"I do think it's going to make raising investment more challenging," he said. "But it's really a lesson for Europe and for Ireland - what we're seeing is the US government, captured by the fossil fuel industry in essense, turning on clean, affordable power generation.
"The lesson for us is that we really need to accelerate the delivery of renewable energy - we need to move towards Irish and European energy independence, we need to get away from a situation where electricity consumers are held hostage to the whims of a dictator in the Kremlin or an erratic US president," Mr Moran said.
"We need to be in charge of our energy future."
