June was another breakthrough month for solar power in Ireland, with grid-scale solar farms breaking record outputs once again.

Grid-scale solar power output reached a new high of 110GWh in June according to provisional data from EirGrid, accounting for 4.36% of all electricity generated last month.

This shattered the previous record of 71.7GW from grid-scale solar set just the month before in May 2024.

Crucially, these figures from EirGrid only account for grid-scale solar farms, and do not take into account electricity generated by rooftop solar panels installed on individual homes.

James Dorrian, Managing Director of EnergyEffciency.ie said, “It is incredible to see the pace at which solar power is coming online exceeding all expectations and growing at such an incredible pace.”

“While solar power is still far behind wind in terms of its share of Ireland’s renewable energy generation, the pace of its growth in just a few years has been remarkable. With prices of solar modules plummeting and fewer planning and environmental barriers compared with solar we can expect to see this trend to continue”.

“Rooftop solar, while not measured here in these EirGrid figures, is also playing an important role in reducing reliance on fossil fuels. A solar PV installation can easily deliver up to half of a household’s electricity. This is power which doesn’t need to come from conventional oil or gas power plants.”

Overall, renewable energy sources including wind, solar, and hydro power provided for one third of all of Ireland’s electricity needs in June.

The largest share of this was created by windfarms, with total generation of 635 GWh for the month, just over a quarter of all electricity used in the country.

This was also the third highest figure ever recorded for wind power generation in the month of June.

Overall electricity system demand stood at 2,482 GWh for June.

Gas generation accounted for 42% of all electricity used in June, with 20% being imported via interconnection, 3% coming from coal, and the remaining 1% from other sources.

EirGrid is responsible for seeing that Ireland hits its climate targets of reaching 80% of electricity generated from renewables by 2030.

Currently the electricity grid can accommodate up to 75% of electricity from renewable sources at any one time. This is known as the system non-synchronous penetration (SNSP) limit. EirGrid is aiming to further increase the SNSP limit.

Charlie McGee, System Operational Manager at EirGrid, said, “Solar generation is naturally always strongest during the summer but this June saw a particularly high output, with solar playing an increasingly important part in our efforts to get more renewable electricity onto the system.”

“June was also another strong month for wind energy, and this is now the third time that wind generation has passed the 600 GWh mark in the month of June even as wind speeds drop during the summer months. This is because more generation capacity is coming onto the system.”