Renewable sources generated almost half of March's electricity, EirGrid says

Eva Osborne

49 per cent of electricity came from renewable sources in March, according to new data from EirGrid, Ireland's electricity grid operator.

Contributing 40 per cent of the overall fuel mix in March, wind energy made up a significant proportion of renewable energy. Total generation of wind amounted to 1,258 GWh (Gigawatt hours).

The overall electricity system demand stood at 3142 GWh in March, compared to 3027GWh in February.

While not summer yet, spring sunshine and a growth in solar power connected to Ireland’s grid resulted in a number of solar records on the power system in March, and this trend is anticipated to continue over the coming months, EirGrid said.

On March 21st, a new peak for grid-scale solar was achieved contributing 983.46MW to Ireland’s electricity mix.

This comes close to 1GW (1000 MW), which is enough to power roughly 500,000 customers.

This follows a record of 979 MW hit on March 19th and 950 MW reached on March 6th.

These figures relate to grid-scale solar, from larger solar farms, and do not account for rooftop solar on homes and businesses, known as embedded solar, EirGrid added.

With rooftop solar accounted for, EirGrid has observed significant changes in electricity requirements from the National Control Centre.

On sunny days, demand during the day for electricity from large electricity generators has declined, as many homes, businesses and farms are powering themselves with embedded solar.

EirGrid’s system operational manager, Charlie McGee, said: “While solar power is currently a relatively small component of the overall fuel mix across a month, these record peaks demonstrate its ever-increasing importance as a source of renewable energy in Ireland as we work towards a more sustainable and renewable ready electricity grid.”

“Looking in particular at the instantaneous power that grid-scale solar can provide, it can meet over 20% of demand at times.

“It’s also interesting to see how much of an impact rooftop solar is having on overall system demand. On brighter days less of Ireland's electricity needs are now served by large scale grid connected generation.

"This is helping to further reduce our reliance on non-renewable sources of electricity.”