ESB has big plans for Irish solar
The state-owned electricity company recently issued a contract notice looking for services to help with the installation of the renewable energy facilities.
It said that it plans to develop 20 to 30 ground-mounted solar farms that would each have a capacity of between 5 MW and 20 MW.
The ESB said it plans to develop "up to 100MW, with the potential that this may extend to 500MW in aggregate" between the second quarter of this year and the end of 2021.
Ireland currently has about 1 MW of installed solar capacity, enough to power between 150 and 300 homes. There are no commercial solar farms in operation in the country.
Ireland is estimated to have just over 3 GW of installed wind capacity "“ around 3,000 times current solar capacity. The UK, in comparison, has 8.4GW of solar energy installed.