Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 May 2014
278. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the funding spent or distributed by his Department or related agencies in each of the past three years to encourage and assist persons in the uptake of renewable energy sources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20306/14]
View answerGrant schemes, administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) on behalf of my Department, are the main source of funding available to the public for adopting renewable energy. The Better Energy Programme, which principally provides funding for energy efficiency measures, also provides grants for the installation of solar panels. The Renewable Heat Deployment Programme (ReHeat), Greener Homes Scheme and the CHP Deployment Programme, previously provided grants but are now closed and residual payments were made in 2011. Since 2011, SEAI has administered the Electric Vehicles Grant scheme which provides grants of up to €5,000 towards the purchase of new electric vehicles. These grants are in addition to the VRT reliefs of up to €5,000 which apply to electric vehicles.
The principal supports for the deployment of electricity generation from renewable sources are the current REFIT and former AER schemes which are not subsidised by the Government. These are funded through the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy, which is paid for by all electricity consumers. The supports for biomass CHP under REFIT 3, along with the requirements of Part L of the Building regulations, contribute to increasing the uptake of renewable heat. Details of the grants provided through SEAI for renewable energy for the years 2011 to 2013 (excluding energy efficiency grants) are set out in the following table.
|
- |
2011 (million euro) |
2012 (million euro) |
2013 (million euro) |
|
ReHeat Programme (residual expenditure) |
0.332 |
0 |
0 |
|
CHP Deployment (residual expenditure) |
0.376 |
0 |
0 |
|
Greener Homes (residual expenditure) |
4.590 |
0 |
0 |
|
Better Energy (Solar grants only) |
0.934 |
1.742 |
1.292 |
|
Electric Vehicles |
0.198 |
0.768 |
0.242 |
In terms of supporting renewable transport fuels, the Biofuel Obligation Scheme has, since 2010, obliged all road transport fuel suppliers to include a certain proportion of biofuel in their overall fuel mix.
It is also noteworthy that the ESB, through its ecars programme, is continuing to roll out both publicly accessible charging infrastructure and domestic charge points to support the uptake of electric vehicles. ESB Ecars also promotes the use of electric vehicles and just recently launched the Great Electric Drive to give 26 members of the public and six commercial organisations the opportunity to trial an electric car for up to four months each.
