Note: This article was updated July 17 2024 to incorporate adjusted solar SCADA data from Eirgrid.

Summary

Electricity from renewable generation and discharging storage met 34.5% of Ireland’s (all-island) electricity demand during June 2024:

• 25.6% wind
• 0.5% hydro
• 3.7% biomass/waste
• 4% solar
• 0.8% discharging pumped storage
• <0.1% discharging batteries

This was the first time renewable generation exceeded 1TWh in a June month. While wind generation was about normal for this time of year, solar generation of approx. 120GWh is helping narrow the gap between winter and summer renewable generation.

Exhibit 1: All-island demand met by different sources, June 2024

New solar records

June 2024 was the strongest month yet for solar generation in Ireland. We observed new highs in what we consider all four major metrics:

• total generation: 119.2GWh
• peak output: 681MW
• total percentage of demand met by solar power: 4%
• peak percentage of demand being met by solar power at any instant in time: 18.2%

Two days surrounding the summer solstice stand out:

• Wednesday June 19 now holds the record for daily solar generation: 6.6GWh.
• Sunday June 23 now holds the record for peak output (681MW); share of demand met by solar (6.7%); and highest instantaneous share of demand being met by solar (18.2%, when output reached 681MW).

While County Meath continues to be the leader in Irish solar generation, its lead is slipping: from 59% in April through 52% in May and now to 48% in June.

Two new large solar farms in the south are largely responsible for this change, namely Cork's Lysaghtstown and Wexford's Rosspile. Solar output in Cork and Wexford has approximately doubled in the past 12 months and while their combined solar capacity remains approximately 70% that of Meath's, their output during June was nevertheless approximately 82% of that of Meath. This suggests solar farms there reach their maximum output more frequently. In other words: it's sunnier in the south.

Exhibit 2: Solar generation mapped, June 19 2024

Exhibit 3: Cork and Wexford solar generation, January 2023 - June 2024

Wind generation

Wind generation was about normal for this time of year, with 771GWh equivalent to 25.6% of all-island electricity demand. That is the third highest amount of wind generation yet seen in a June month. However, as the chart below makes clear, the percentage of electricity demand met by wind power has steadily fallen for the past several years. We attribute this to steadily rising demand and little in the way of new wind capacity.

That said, there were periods of strong winds and in fact wind output reached 3522MW on June 27th, the highest output yet seen in a June month. We can attribute this largely to Oweninny in County Mayo - Ireland's largest single wind farm - finally coming back online towards the end of the month after more than two months due to a cable fault.

Exhibit 4: All-island June wind generation, 2014-2024

Carbon Emissions

We estimate that for each KWh of electricity generated in June the Irish grid emitted between between 108g and 429g of CO2, for an average of 263gCO2/kWh.

This is significantly lower than June 2023's average of 337gCO2/kWh. May also saw significantly reduced emissions compared with 2023 and again we attribute this development to the following factors:

• the elimination of peat generation
• increased solar generation
• continued increased reliance on imports

Exhibit 5: All-island grid-carbon intensity, June 2024