Ireland and the UK have made good progress on both States’ joint, innovative and ambitious work in the area of renewable energy trading since my signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey M.P. in January 2013.Both States remain committed to concluding an Inter Governmental Agreement which would facilitate the development of renewable energy projects in Ireland, both onshore and offshore. However, it is recognised that the economic, policy and regulatory complexities involved for both onshore and offshore projects, and the key decisions yet to be taken by the UK in this regard, would make 2020 delivery difficult to achieve given project lead times. For this reason, the shared work will focus on the longer term post 2020 period, and both countries will continue to work together productively on that basis.
To date, €121,000 has been committed to consultancy support required for the development of (i) a full cost benefit analysis and (ii) an appropriate framework dealing with planning, policy and regulatory issues. The outcomes from these workstreams will guide decision making on future domestic and any proposed inter-governmental initiatives.
Commercial decisions by private landowners and commercial market operators are matters for the parties concerned.
