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Earlier today, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Energy (DCEE) published the provisional results of the Tonn Nua offshore wind auction, Ireland's second offshore wind auction under the offshore renewable electricity support scheme (ORESS).
Background
This auction to procure 900MW of offshore wind has taken place under the Government's new plan-led approach to offshore renewable generation and will significantly contribute to Ireland meeting its national and EU climate targets. The plan-led approach involves the Government identifying appropriate sites for offshore wind farms and places responsibility on EirGrid to roll out the required offshore electricity transmission infrastructure.
Tonn Nua is an area off the coast of Waterford that had been identified by the South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan (SC DMAP), the State's first spatial plan for offshore renewable energy development. There are three further locations which have been identified by the SC DMAP which will form the remainder of the current set of offshore auctions to take place over the coming years (referred to as the "Phase 2 auctions").
In addition to the SC DMAP, DCEE announced in September 2025 that it is developing a National DMAP to designate sufficient maritime area around the Irish coast to deliver a target of 20GW of offshore renewable energy by 2040.
Results
The winning applicant for this auction is Helvick Head Offshore Wind DAC, a joint venture partnership between ESB and Ørsted, the Denmark-based renewable energy developer.
The result of this highly contested auction surpassed expectations within the Government and has secured a renewable energy price of €98.719 per megawatt hour (MWh). The DCEE believe the price to be favourable when compared to offshore wind auctions that have taken place in other jurisdictions and the price is cheaper than the average price of onshore solar energy (€100.63/MWh) announced in the most recent onshore renewable energy subsidy auction, RESS 5.
Next Steps
The Tonn Nua results announced today are provisional and are subject to the normal RESS confirmation processes with the final auction results to be announced on 9 December.
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