Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 June 2016
6. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if Ireland is on track to meet binding European Union 2020 renewable targets; the fines that will be realised if these are not achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16220/16]
View answerThe Minister is well aware of the binding commitments made in the European agreement, Towards 2020, regarding renewable targets. Significant fines will accrue to the State if those are not achieved. Will the Minister outline his views on our position in that process and if he expects we will reach the targets set out?
The Deputy should do the lotto on the way home. He has done very well in the lottery on this occasion.
The 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020. In order to meet this target, Ireland is committed to meeting 40% of electricity demand from renewable sources. We also plan to achieve 12% renewables in the heating sector and 10% in transport. The Government has adopted a range of support measures designed to meet our binding target and although good progress towards our target has been made to date, meeting the 16% target remains challenging. Provisional data from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, or SEAI, indicates that we had reached 9.2% of the overall 16% target at the end of 2015. In the electricity sector, the primary support mechanisms introduced for renewable electricity are the alternative energy requirement, or AER, schemes and the renewable energy feed-in-tariff, or REFIT, schemes. These schemes have proved successful at incentivising the development of the renewable electricity generation capacity necessary to meet our 40% renewable electricity target. Provisional figures show that in 2015, some 25.3% of electricity demand was met by renewable sources.
In the heating sector, my Department is working on the introduction of a new renewable heat incentive, or RHI, to support the deployment of renewable energy in the sector. The primary aim of the RHI is to build on the progress already made in heating and to help reach our 12% target by 2020. In 2015, it is estimated that 6.8% of heat was derived from renewable sources. In the transport sector, Ireland aims to meet its renewable target mainly through the increased use of sustainable biofuels with electric vehicles also making a small contribution. In 2015, provisional figures indicate 5.7% of our energy needs in the transport sector were met from renewable sources.
In the event of a member state not meeting its targets, the renewable energy directive sets out arrangements to purchase compliance and thereby avoid infringement proceedings by the EU Commission. These include a flexibility measure known as a statistical transfer. While the precise cost of purchasing statistical transfers or of any potential shortfall in Ireland's target of 16% has yet to be established and will depend on a number of factors, the focus remains firmly on meeting our 2020 target. The SEAI has estimated that the cost to Ireland may be in the range of €100 million to €150 million for each percentage point Ireland falls short of the overall 16% renewable energy target. The energy White Paper, Ireland's Transition to a Low Carbon Energy Future, published in December 2015 sets out a vision for transforming Ireland's fossil-fuel based energy sector into a clean, low carbon system by 2050. The clear focus of my Department is on implementing the range of actions set out in the White Paper and the programme for Government which are aimed at meeting our energy and climate change targets.
I thank the Minister. From discussions I have had with the sector generally, it would appear that we are on target with regard to meeting 40% of electricity demand from renewable generation. There is a great deal of concern around the heat sector and I look forward to the proposals the Minister has on encouraging home owners to be more efficient in the way they manage their heating requirements. My reading and discussions with the industry indicate that there is no expectation we will meet the target on the transport side of things. The Minister referred to biofuels, about which there was a great deal of talk a number of years ago and in respect of which there were some interesting pilot programmes. No more than the Minister, those of us in the House travel the country quite a bit and I do not know when I last saw any reference to biofuels or any station providing them. There is widespread concern that we are in trouble in regard to those two aspects. The sooner the Minister can bring the proposal on heat to the marketplace the better. That is great, but we have a big problem in regard to biofuels and the transport sector and the Department will have to take a lead. It is not going to come from transport or anywhere else. Hopefully, the Minister can bring proposals to the House on that in due course.
There is no doubt that there is a challenge in regard to transport. It is an uphill struggle for us, mainly because we are technology takers. We are not big car manufacturers and we are not a big market. As the Deputy knows, electrical vehicles are useful in big cities, but they will not be a solution in rural Ireland given the type of batteries we have. I am very supportive of and have met with Commissioner Cañete on a number of occasions. The Commissioner is ensuring that additional investment is being made in battery technology, because that is the solution to the electricity quandary. When that technology is available, all we can do is be ready to accept it.
On the heat sector, we can make significant progress. The cheapest barrel of oil is the one which is not burned. If we can reduce the cost of heating and energy for families by making their homes more energy efficient, that will reduce the amount of energy they use. To give the Deputy a simple statistic, the SEAI tells me that there are 1 million home heating boilers in the country which need to be upgraded. If they were, it would reduce the cost of heating homes and make them far more efficient. Today’s Irish Examiner indicates that EPS, a company in Cork, has spent €200,000 on upgrading the energy efficiency of the homes of its own employees. It is the equivalent in the energy sector of the cycle to work scheme. Employers get involved, assist with carrying out assessments on homes and assist with upgrading them. The families get interest free loans which they pay off against the savings they make. That is an innovative approach we need to support.
