Ireland awarded contracts to four offshore wind projects with the potential to produce 3.1 gigawatts of capacity in its first-ever offshore wind power auction, the government announced on Thursday.
The schemes were awarded at a weighted average strike price of 86.05 euros per megawatt-hour, below the maximum offer price of 150 euros and surpassing expectations, Energy Minister Eamon Ryan said in a statement.
The contracts were awarded to a 1.3 gigawatts joint venture between EDF Renewables and Fred Olsen Seawind, an 824-megawatt RWE project and 500 and 450-megawatt farms led respectively by Norway's Statkraft and Corio Generation, which is part of Macquarie's Green Investment Group.
Two projects were unsuccessful.
"The provisional results are not just a hugely positive story for Irish energy consumers, but for Ireland as a whole," Ryan said in a statement.
"The results are further evidence of what many of us have known for a long time; that we, as a nation, can develop and produce enormous quantities of clean energy – securely and at low cost."
(Reuters - Reporting by Padraic Halpin Editing by Christina Fincher)