The total amount of grid-scale solar¹ energy produced in 2024 was surpassed five months early in July of this year, EirGrid has confirmed.

Official metered data shows that by the end of July this year 753 gigawatt hours (GWh) of solar energy had been supplied on the grid, up from a total of 659GWh for the whole of 2024.

Complex task

EirGrid’s National Control Centre carries out the complex task of balancing the supply of solar energy alongside conventional generation sources and other renewable resources such as wind power to ensure that demand can be met.

The new yearly record comes against the backdrop of a series of solar activity peak records set over the course of the summer, with the highest level of 798 Megawatts (MW) recorded at 3pm on Wednesday, July 9.

Megawatt (MW) values provide snapshots of electricity demand at a particular moment in time, whereas gigawatt hours (GWh) reflects electricity use over a longer period.

Meanwhile, latest provisional data from EirGrid shows that 35% of electricity came from renewables in August².

Overall, 27% of electricity in August came from wind, with 5% coming from solar. Gas was the single largest source of electricity generation for the month at 45%, with 19% coming from imports.

Overall electricity system demand stood at 2,704 GWh for August³, down slightly from July.

Diarmaid Gillespie, director of system operations at EirGrid, said: “While the overall percentage for solar power remains relatively small compared to some other sources of generation, its strong growth has marked an evolution in Ireland’s fuel mix. This has been driven by progress in connecting large-scale solar energy to the national electricity grid in recent years.” 

References 

1) Not including rooftop (embedded) solar.

2) Average Fuel Mix is a representation of the System Generation fuel mix and net imports across the power system. The “Renewables” category includes wind, solar, hydro and biomass sources. It excludes some non-centrally monitored generation (e.g. small scale combined heat and power and microgeneration).

3) System demand represents the electricity production required to meet national electricity consumption, including system losses, but net of generators' requirements.