Ireland picks 1.9 GW of provisional winners in RESS 2 auction

Ireland’s EirGrid on Friday announced that over 1.9 GW of wind and solar projects have secured contracts in the country’s second Renewable Electricity Support Scheme 2 (RESS 2) auction.

According to provisional results released by state-owned electric power transmission operator, 80 projects have won contracts with a guaranteed price for power. They were chosen from a basket of 130 proposals that have taken part in the competitive procurement round.

The cumulative capacity of the received bids was 2.9 GW.

In terms of pricing, the average strike price across the winning projects is EUR 97.87 (USD 103.69) per MWh, as compared to EUR 74.08/MWh in the inaugural 2020 round.

Solar was the dominant technology in the bidding process, with photovoltaic (PV) projects securing the bulk of the awarded capacity, or some 1.53 GW, whereas around 14% was left for wind. In all, 11 onshore wind projects totalling 414 MW have been awarded contracts.

The full list is available on EirGrid’s website.

The selected projects have been provisionally approved by Eirgrid, while the results will need to be greenlit by the government. The contracts that will be awarded will provide support for up to 16.5 years. The final auction results are due to be announced on June 15.

In its first renewable energy auction held in 2020, Ireland awarded 1.28 GW of solar and onshore wind capacity.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.060)

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