Supporting Renewables

Understanding policy impact on the cost to the consumers of renewable development in Northern Ireland

Cornwall Insight Ireland’s report for RenewableNI finds that appropriate support for renewable generation in Northern Ireland can be expected to reduce overall cost to consumer.

The Department for the Economy (DfE) is in the process of designing a renewable electricity support scheme for Northern Ireland to encourage investment in the industry. Fundamentally in order to achieve the 80% renewable generation 2030 targets, the DfE need to reduce the risks associated with investing in renewables in NI. Our report found that the key factors that will de-risk investment are a longer fixed-term contract, 100% indexation of the bid price, compensation for curtailment and over-supply related dispatch down, a non-mandatory scheme and a focus on easing timeline and process related pressures around planning and grid connections.

During the seminar launching the report yesterday, our findings were echoed in the robust interaction with stakeholders in the room, whose key concerns were around planning, grid and treatment of smaller generation assets.

Findings from our report together with other key recent energy market developments will be covered in the December 2023 edition of Cornwall Insight’s Energy Spectrum Ireland. Please contact Therese Murphy at t.murphy@cornwall-insight.ie if you are interested in receiving a copy.


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