The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) released their annual report on the Irish wind sector revealing that the share of wind power meeting Irish electricity demand increased from 29% in 2018 to 32.5% in 2019. According to IWEA, this is a record for Ireland, the second highest share in Europe, and the highest share for onshore wind in Europe.
IWEA also stated that wind power provided more electricity than natural gas during the months of February and December.
24 new wind farms were connected and operational during 2019 with a total capacity of 463MW, making 2019 the second best year for new installations. This addition means that Ireland now has an installed capacity of 4,130MW of wind generating 9,497 TWh of electricity in 2019. IWEA identified Irelands potential to further increase the installed capacity of wind, with opportunities still present onshore but with offshore wind being Irelands true potential.
It must be noted that the Irish wind sector suffered an increase on the share of energy lost due to dispatch down, which is when a generator is instructed to reduce production, or even shut down production at times. Dispatch down occurs normally as a result of curtailment or as a result of the transmission system not being strong enough to transmit all of the generated wind power.
2019 saw 7.7% (1,008 TWh) of the total production lost to dispatch down, which would have been enough electricity to power 200,000 homes.