Need For This Project
Sustainability
Sustainable energy can be defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generations.
Average global temperatures in 2024 reached 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels – just above the 1.5°C threshold established in the Paris Agreement. The imperative is now on us all as local, national, and international communities to do what we can to limit global warming and its effects. With its abundant natural resources, Ireland can be a world leader when it comes to renewable energy integration. We are already on the right path to decarbonising our energy system, but we cannot afford to lose momentum.
Energy Security
Statkraft is keenly aware of Ireland’s need to secure its own energy future.
There are a number of factors which can cause supply disruption, reinforcing the importance of utilising the clean, reliable energy sources we have here in Ireland.
Renewable energy sources not only reduce our reliance on imported, polluting fossil fuels but they also ensure security of supply through climate-driven disruptions.
Having our secure energy supply can help shield us from global market energy price increases. For example, the below illustrates the difference wind energy can make to wholesale electricity prices.
Wind Energy Ireland’s Annual Wind Energy Report for July 2024 reveals just how much wind energy can reduce the price of wholesale electricity. During the windiest periods of the month, the price of electricity per megawatt hour was 36% lower than the least windy periods.
Climate Action
Wind energy has the potential to produce more electricity every year than Ireland needs.
Just with the onshore wind farms we already have, wind energy in Ireland provides 34% of the electricity we use. Every time you switch on the TV or boil the kettle, a portion of that power is coming from wind turbines.
And that’s without all the energy we’re yet to harness from the wind that blows offshore. We have some of the best offshore wind resources in the world and over the rest of the decade, we need to build and connect a new generation of offshore wind farms to power Ireland.
As we harness more of that boundless wind energy and push fossil fuels off the electricity grid, the renewable electricity we generate will help other sectors reduce their emissions as well.
Electricity from wind energy will reduce our reliance on fossil-fuelled transport, as buses and trains are electrified and hundreds of thousands of new electric vehicles hit our roads.
Wind energy will power the heat pumps we employ in our homes and industries, replacing boilers and heaters that run on fossil fuels.