Wind provided 37 per cent of the State’s electricity in the first three months of 2019, a report from a wind energy lobby group has found.

The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) found that the share of wind energy increased from 35 per cent in the same period in 2018 to record its best performance ever in the first quarter.

“We had a very strong start to the year for wind energy, particularly in February when energy produced the most electricity, even surpassing natural gas, so we hope to build on this in the coming months,” said Dr David Connolly, chief executive of the IWEA.

More than 2.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity (MWh) was produced from wind energy in the period, up from 2.7 million MWh in the first quarter of 2018. In broad terms, one MWh of electricity can supply 1,000 homes for that period of time and a standard Irish household uses around 4.5 MWh every year.

The total available capacity of the Republic’s wind energy has now risen to 3,700 MW, enough to power about 2.2 million homes annually.

There were two new farms completed in the quarter, adding an extra 33 MW.