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Irish Grid

About & Methodology

Every number on this site, explained

Irish Grid is an independent advocacy project built entirely on public data. This page shows exactly how each figure is derived — because the data is only persuasive if it's transparent.

Who's behind Irish Grid

Irish Grid is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to EirGrid, SONI, or any system operator. Our mission is to make three things undeniable: Ireland generates clean energy it cannot use; that waste has a cost that lands on billpayers; and there is a way to turn that waste into value with flexible, interruptible demand.

1 · Wasted energy (dispatch-down)

Year views — official actuals

For full-year figures we use the official annual dispatch-down volumes from EirGrid's Constraint & Curtailment reports (split into curtailment vs constraint where published). These are labelled ✓ actual.

Short periods — modelled estimates

For day/week/month views we estimate dispatch-down from live data as available_wind − dispatched_wind for the period. These are labelled ≈ estimate and are not official actuals.

2 · Cost to billpayers

The headline cost is modelled as the compensation / constraint payments to generators — not a naïve volume × price. Crucially, system-wide curtailment is often uncompensated for newer (non-priority-dispatch) generators, whereas local constraints are generally compensated. So we separate the wasted volume from the compensated cost.

Worked example — 1,000 GWh dispatched down

Curtailment volume
700 GWh
Constraint volume
300 GWh
Compensated (curtailment 20%, constraint 95%)
425 GWh
× €75.00/MWh
€31.9M
Cost per billpayer (÷ 2,200,000)
€14.49
Cost per person (÷ 5,300,000)
€6.01

3 · Bitcoin-mineable value & savings

For a given wasted-energy figure, we compute how much BTC an interruptible fleet could mine, and its value. We show every intermediate so the figure is auditable.

Formula

usable_MWh   = wasted_MWh × uptime
total_TH     = (usable_MWh × 1000 × 3.6e6 J) / efficiency_J_per_TH
fleet_TH/s   = total_TH / period_seconds
share        = fleet_TH/s / network_TH/s
btc_gross    = blocks_in_period × block_reward × share
btc_net      = btc_gross × (1 − pool_fee)
value_eur    = btc_net × btc_price_eur
saving/head  = value_eur / n_billpayers

Worked example — 1,000 GWh / year

Usable energy (× uptime)
900 GWh
Avg fleet hashrate
5.87 EH/s
Network share
0.78%
BTC mined (net)
1,266.43 BTC
Value
€116.5M
Saving per billpayer
€52.96

4 · Default assumptions (editable in admin)

Miner efficiency
17.5 J/TH (S21-class)
Uptime factor (interruptible)
90%
Pool fee
1.5%
Block reward
3.13 BTC
Sell / hold split
50% sold / 50% held
Billpayers (domestic accounts)
2,200,000
Population
5,300,000
Households (forecast)
2,100,000
BTC price / difficulty / hashrate
Live from APIs, cached hourly

These are transparent defaults, not fixed truth

Every assumption is editable in the admin panel and recomputes figures without a redeploy. They are shown next to derived figures throughout the site.

Try it yourself

Adjust the inputs to see how the recoverable value changes. Defaults are the transparent assumptions above; nothing here is a forecast or advice.

Recoverable value

€116.5M

BTC mined (net)
1,266.43 BTC
Network share
0.78%
Saved / billpayer
€52.96

Illustrative · not financial advice

Data sources

We cite these sources and respect their terms of use. Generator coordinates and the “major sites” selection are a curated seed set pending final sourcing confirmation.

Disclaimers

Independence

Irish Grid is an independent project and is not affiliated with EirGrid or SONI.

Not financial or investment advice. Bitcoin figures depend on volatile market prices and network conditions and are illustrative only.

Estimates vs actuals

Short-period curtailment and cost figures are modelled estimates and are clearly distinguished from official annual actuals throughout the site.