Renewable NI, the voice of the renewable electricity industry in Northern Ireland, has welcomed the Department for the Economy’s Energy Strategy Action Plan which sets out a roadmap for 2025 to advance the transition towards secure, affordable and clean energy.
Steven Agnew, Director, RenewableNI said,
“The latest Energy Strategy Action Plan aims to double the size of the renewables sector to deliver a turnover of more than £2 billion by 2030. This is only the beginning of our ambitions for a green economy but is fundamentally predicated on the support mechanisms promised within the timeframes – particularly to enable a pathway for offshore renewable energy which would deliver a further £2.4 billion alone*.
The creation of a Grid Development Monitoring Group is a welcome addition to help ensure grid development is in line with the 80% by 2030 target. A lack of grid capacity resulted in wind farms being turned off 30% of the time in 2024, when they could have been providing cheap, low carbon renewable electricity.
We eagerly await the final design of a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme support. The lack of timescale for the legislative programme is concerning as the scheme cannot proceed without it. We already have already lost a decade, with investment going elsewhere, given we have been the only part of these islands without a scheme in place. We cannot risk any further delays without risking green growth opportunities.
Likewise, timelines around the revised Strategic Planning Policy Statement for renewable and low carbon energy has also slipped. Only five new wind farms have been connected in Northern Ireland this past decade. As a region, we need to be shoulder to shoulder with Great Britian’s planning reform for green energy and related infrastructure or opportunities will blow by us.
The triple threat of planning, a support mechanism and grid capacity, needs to be tackled or the 80 by 30 target is nothing more than a whisper in the wind.”