Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 September 2021
219. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications when a feed-in tariff will be provided for the microgeneration of sustainable energy in Ireland; the number of solar farms currently plugged into the national grid; and the number of houses that have been deep retrofitted in each of the past five years. [46297/21]
View answerMy Department outlined proposals for a new Micro-generation Support Scheme (MSS) in a public consultation that closed in February last. A summary report of the submissions received has been published on my Department's website. It is intended that a suitable payment for excess electricity generated on site and exported to the grid will be available to all renewables self-consumers later this year, subject to regulatory arrangements, and in line with transposition of Articles 21 and 22 of the recast Renewable Energy Directive. My Department is engaging with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel on transposing these Articles into Irish law and it is envisaged that this will be achieved before the end of the year.
It is expected the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) will publish a draft framework in the coming weeks outlining the details, including eligibility criteria and timescales for introduction, of the Clean Export Guarantee tariff for exported renewable electricity. This framework will introduce an obligation on electricity suppliers to offer remuneration to their customers, by way of a Clean Export Guarantee payment, for excess renewable electricity exported to the grid by eligible micro- and small-scale generators. I understand that the CRU consultation will last four weeks, with a decision expected to be published in November.My Department does not hold information relating to the number of solar farms connected to the grid, which is an operational matter for the Transmission and Distribution System Operators.
The following table outlines the number of SEAI supported deep retrofits to BER B2 or better in each of the past 5 years. It is important to note that local authority supported retrofits are additional to these figures.
|
2017* |
2018* |
2019 |
2020 |
To August 2021 |
|
|
SEAI supported retrofits to BER B2 or better |
662 |
817 |
2,189 |
3,210 |
1,895 |
*Figures for 2017 and 2018 relate only to the Deep Retrofit Programme, the Better Energy Homes scheme and the Solar PV scheme. Figures for 2019, 2020 and 2021 include all SEAI residential and community schemes.
