Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 January 2013
580. Deputy Damien English asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to encourage the use of solar photovoltaic cells as micro generators of electricity for end users of the residential sector; his plans to introduce a REFIT tariff to encourage the use of PV cells to generate electricity in this sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57775/12]
View answer581. Deputy Damien English asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to encourage the use of solar photovoltaic cells as micro generators of electricity for end users in the commercial and industrial sectors; his plans to introduce a REFIT tariff to encourage the use of PV cells to generate electricity in these sectors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57776/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 580 and 581 together.
Electric Ireland has been offering a 9c/kwh feed in tariff, on a commercial basis, to domestic microgenerators (including in the solar PV category) since February 2009. No other electricity supply company has to date chosen to enter the market and to offer a microgeneration feed-in-tariff on a commercial basis, although the Commission for Energy Regulation invited them to do so. No company has opted to offer, on a commercial basis, a feed-in-tariff for microgeneration of solar PV to the commercial and industrial sectors.
Previously, a joint ESB/Electric Ireland microgeneration support scheme for the domestic sector offering a total of 19c/kwh (comprising €10c/kwh from ESB Networks combined with the 9c/kwh from ESB Customer Supply (now Electric Ireland)) ran for 3 years (February 2009-February 2012) and had a take up of between 500 and 600 installations.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has been asked to provide my Department with analysis of other means through which the microgeneration sector could be supported, apart from through a feed-in-tariff funded from the Public Service Obligation.
In 2009, the SEAI initiated a pilot microgeneration programme. This involved 42 installations of various microgeneration technologies. A final monitoring report on the performance of the installations and learning from the programme is awaited from SEAI. This will inform future policy development.
In view of falling technology costs, the Department has also asked SEAI to update analysis on the costs of varying levels of support for microgeneration technologies, with a view to considering how the sector could be supported in the future.
