Vol. 487 No. 6
28 Mr. Currie asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the progress to date in 1998 in implementing the commitment in An Action Programme for the Millennium to aggressively pursue alternative sources of renewable energy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5027/98]
There are two competitions currently under way on the development of alternative energy sources. The Aer III competition aims to secure an additional 100 megawatts of electricity generating capacity from renewable energy sources, wind, hydro, waste, biomass and wave. The closing date for receipt of commercial bids for the competition was 13 February 1998.
An independent agency, ETSU, appointed to conduct the competition on behalf of my Department, is currently assessing the commercial bids received and I expect to be in a position to announce the results early in the coming month. The Aer IV competition, which I launched on 22 September 1997, aims to secure an additional 25 megawatts of newly installed electricity generating capacity from high efficiency combined heat and power systems. Furthermore, it will seek to contract up to ten megawatts of electricity generating capacity from existing similar systems.
The Aer IV competition closed for technical bids on Friday, 23 January 1998.
Additionally, the guaranteed electricity market access for Irish renewable energy projects successful in securing Thermie grants has been continued for the 1998 round. It has also been broadened to include combined heat and power projects. For successful biomass projects, a special enhanced tariff structure has been negotiated.
