An Bord Pleanála approved 10 new wind farms in 2024

Eva Osborne

In 2024, An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for 10 new wind farms with a combined capacity of 717 MW.

This is approximately 42 per cent of the volume of wind energy needed to keep Ireland on track for the Government’s targets in the Climate Action Plan.

The first annual planning report was published by Wind Energy Ireland as hundreds of delegates arrived for day two of its Annual Conference in Dublin.

Wind Energy Ireland estimates that, to achieve the 9,000 MW of onshore wind energy by 2030 target in the Climate Action Plan, An Bord Pleanála would have needed to approve 1,720 MW during this period.

The Board also rejected planning applications from 12 wind farms with an estimated combined capacity of 677 MW, while 30 projects totalling 1,598 MW were awaiting decision at the end of 2024.

Chief executive of Wind Energy Ireland, Noel Cunniffe, said: “Irish people want clean, affordable and secure energy. That is what wind farms deliver but we will need more of them to provide the power Irish families, businesses and communities’ demand.

“Before we can build new wind farms, we need to first get them through the planning system and we are simply not seeing enough new projects to enable us to reach our 2030 targets.”

Industry did welcome the increase in the number of decisions made in 2024, which was up by 16 per cent when compared to 2023.

“The extra resources that Government has put into An Bord Pleanála, the NPWS and other planning authorities are very welcome. We are starting to see the effect of that in the number of decisions being made and particularly towards the end of last year," Cunniffe said.