A solar farm outside Carlow town in Ireland has reached full operation, and its developer, Perigus Energy, says the finished plant can supply electricity to 29,000 homes. The plant is called Garreenleen Solar Farm. It sits off the N80 road at Kilnock, about 15 kilometers from Carlow town. It generates 81 megawatts, a measure of how much electricity generating capacity a power plant has, and the grid operator in Ireland, EirGrid, lists that exact same 81 megawatt figure in the government auction records that awarded the project its contract, an independent check on a number the company also gives about itself.
How many homes the solar farm in Carlow Ireland can power
Perigus Energy says Garreenleen can supply electricity to 29,000 homes. That figure comes from the company alone. No government body or independent group in this article counted it separately, and no source states the assumption behind it, such as how much electricity an average home uses in a year. The 81 megawatt capacity figure is different. That number is independently listed by EirGrid, the company that runs the electricity transmission grid across Ireland, in the same government auction document that names the project directly.
How the government auction got the project built
Ireland pays for new wind and solar power through a scheme called the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme. The government runs a competitive auction, developers bid a price for the electricity they will generate, and the cheapest bids win a contract. Garreenleen won a contract in the third round of that scheme, called RESS 3, in 2023. EirGrid listed the project by name in its own provisional auction results, with an offer quantity of 81 megawatts of solar, among 23 projects that round accepted out of 31 that had submitted a bid. Of those 23, 20 were solar projects and 3 were onshore wind. Construction started in June 2024, and the plant reached full operation on August 18, 2026, 2 years after the ground was first broken.
Garreenleen Solar Farm is 1 of the 20 solar projects the auction accepted, at 81 megawatts.
Show the numbers
| Projects that offered | 31 |
| Projects accepted | 23 |
| Solar projects accepted | 20 |
| Wind projects accepted | 3 |
What the finished plant adds to the grid in Ireland
Perigus Energy says its own operating capacity across the island of Ireland rose from 373 megawatts to 454 megawatts the moment Garreenleen switched on. That is a rise of 81 megawatts, the exact size of the new plant. The match only shows up by reading the two figures the company gives side by side, rather than repeating either number alone, and it lines up with the separate, independent 81 megawatt figure EirGrid recorded for the same project.
The middle bar is the gap between the other two, calculated from the 2 figures Perigus Energy gives for capacity before and after. It matches the new plant capacity of 81 megawatts exactly.
Show the numbers
| Before Garreenleen | 373 |
| Added by Garreenleen | 81 |
| After Garreenleen | 454 |
Only 2 years after starting construction, this former greenfield site is now exporting green, secure and homegrown electricity to the Irish grid.
TJ Hunter, managing director of Perigus Energy for Ireland and the United Kingdom. Source 1.
What the developer promised the local area
Perigus Energy makes 240,000 euro available each year for a community benefit fund while the plant operates, and that fund is now open for applications. The company set aside 10% of the site for biodiversity work and planted more than 1.2 kilometers of native hedgerow.
It is a strong example of the speed of delivery of onshore renewables and what can be achieved as we continue to build out Ireland's renewable energy infrastructure.
TJ Hunter, managing director of Perigus Energy for Ireland and the United Kingdom. Source 4.
Perigus Energy, the company that built and now runs the plant, is Cork headquartered. It was formerly the European onshore wind and solar business of Orsted, and took the Perigus Energy name in 2026.