Vol. 547 No. 1
189 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the extent to which the cost of connection to the national grid will be borne by the ESB and the Government with regard to the proposed Eirtricity windfarm off the coast of County Wicklow; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2152/02]
In replying to the Deputy I would like to put in context the long-term Government support for renewable energy in a range of technologies such as wind, landfill gas and small scale hydro. In the Green Paper on Sustainable Energy, which I published in September 1999, I set a target of an additional 500MW of renewable energy up to the end of 2005. Government support for renewable energy technologies in the form of Alternative Energy Requirement (AER) competitions has been manifest over the past number of years. Next week I will be announcing the winning bidders in the fifth Alternative Energy Requirement competition (AER5). All winning projects already have full planning permission and, together with the market access they are in a position to avail of under AER5, they will be proceeding to build renewable generating stations over the next year or two. I have also given a commitment to the renewable energy industry that AER6 will follow on quickly.
I have pursued a policy of positive support for renewable energy technologies and particularly wind energy. To date this has concentrated on on-shore projects.
In relation to offshore development there are a number of developers who have expressed interest in offshore wind projects. However, a number of major issues arise and require research before final decisions can be made. These include the following: assessment of the capacity of the electricity grid system to accept large volumes of electricity generated by wind farms – the Commission for Electricity Regulation has just recently announced the commissioning of a comprehensive study of this issue which is expected to be completed in six months; a study of the costs associated with offshore wind developments in Irish conditions – some work has already been carried out in a study completed by Kirk, McClure, Morton entitled, Assessment of Offshore Wind Resources in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and this further study will allow a comparison of the cost of offshore generated electricity against the known costs of onshore generated electricity; costs of connections of windfarms of such substantial capacity – this issue will need to examined by Eirgrid and regulated by the Commission for Electricity Regulation; and the need to examine and evaluate the support mechanisms in place for offshore projects in other European countries such as Denmark and Holland.
