Only one new wind farm was approved by an Bord Pleanála in the third quarter of this year, according to the latest quarterly report published today by Wind Energy Ireland (WEI).
It found that this single wind farm is around 13% of the volume of wind energy needed to keep Ireland on track for the Government's targets in the Climate Action Plan.
The report looks at the number of wind energy projects getting through the planning system.
It shows that just three wind energy projects received planning decisions between July and September, compared with five during the same period in 2023.
Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, has criticised the slow rate of progress outlined in the report.
"At an Bord Pleanála’s current rate of grants for new wind farms we will hit Ireland’s 2030 target at some point in 2044," he said.
"Our broken planning system continues to be the single greatest barrier to affordable, clean, energy and to ending our dependency on imported fossil fuels."
The single new wind farm that was approved has an estimated capacity of 63MW.
WEI estimates that, to achieve the 9,000 MW onshore wind energy by 2030 target in the Climate Action Plan, An Bord Pleanála would have needed to approve 492 MW during this period.
It said the board also rejected planning applications from two wind farms with an estimated combined capacity of 95 MW, while 31 projects totalling 1,730 MW are awaiting decision at the end of the third quarter.
Mr Cunniffe described a single windfarm approval as "disastrous" adding that 492 MW is needed in the last quarter to help reach Ireland's Climate Action Plan target of 9,000 MW by 2030.
However, he welcomed extra resources for An Bord Pleanála, the NPWS and other planning bodies, adding that he hopes to see an improvement in decision timelines.
He also said it was encouraging to several changes to projects approved in the last quarter to enable older projects that already had planning permission to move forward.
He did however also note that they are seeing a significant increase in the number of refusals of projects because of anti-wind County Development plans, where local authorities have changed the zoning of the land to prevent wind farms being built.
"Preventing the development of renewable energy projects condemns us all to paying higher prices for imported fossil fuels and undermines Ireland as an attractive location for foreign direct investment," Mr Cunniffe said.
