asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if he will consider the allocation of grants to people who install windmills as an alternative source of energy within the home.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Windmill Grants.
8.
There are no funds at my disposal out of which such grants could be made.
In view of the uncertainty regarding the extension of the 1976 Act to older houses not eligible for cover under that and, in view of the increasingly prohibitive cost of installation to newer houses in more remote areas, would the Minister consider it feasible, if we had a prototype windmill subject to strict departmental regulations, to allocate grants in such cases?
That seems to be a repetition of the original question.
What I said was that I have no funds out of which to make such grants. So far as considering whether or not they might be made available I would say to the Deputy that at the moment, both from a technological and the financial viewpoint, wind energy is not a satisfactory or an economic source of power. I have read a fairly long report on it from the ESB. There is research being carried out in other countries and to a limited extent here in relation to it, and if that research were to result in wind energy becoming a more economic proposition for the generation of electricity it would certainly be considered. It might be suitable for some of the more remote parts of the country. The difficulty is there is no continuity of supply, and one of the major inhibitions is the capital needed, not just for the windmills themselves but also to provide a standby source so that there would be continuity of supply.
I am going a little distance beyond the question, but is it not a fact that this country is conducting an experiment at the moment and, if that is so, I would be glad if the Minister would tell us how far it has got in regard to the possibility of combining two sources of alternative energy, namely, windmill farming and the growth of short rotation forestry on the same patch of land?
The board has started, or is about to start, experiments in what they call bio-mass conversion from short rotational forestry at the existing turf burning station at Cahirciveen in Kerry. I understand that the position is that the experiments will continue for some years. It is hoped that that could be used in conjunction with wind energy, and I think the long-term intention is to put in the Cahirciveen area when the technology has been more fully developed one of these large windmills to find out if the two can work satisfactorily together. It is only fair to say that the public would be misled if it were thought that there was any possibility of this proposed arrangement being an economic proposition within the next decade. It is a long-term proposition. It is one of which I thoroughly approve, and I thoroughly approve of the ESB experimenting because, if it works out, it will be beneficial in the long term.
Whether or not it is economic next year or in ten years' time will depend very much on other sources of energy, particularly the main source of energy which is imported and over the price of which we have no control. If the price were to go up that would completely change the economics of the entire situation.
Not drastically. The main factor involved in the economy of any such proposal as this is the capital cost. While, undoubtedly, in the long term an increase in the prices of alternative fuel would have an effect, the major problem is the capital expenditure involved on the project itself.