Brian Stanley
Question:30. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to increase the involvement of farmers in the area of renewable energy. [60396/21]
View answerThursday, 9 December 2021
Questions (30)
Written answers
While overall national energy policy formation is the direct responsibility of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) my Department continuously engages with DECC on all energy related matters from an agricultural perspective, as well as a wide range of industry and other stakeholder groupings.
The importance of renewable energy generation, particularly from microgeneration, in mitigating against carbon emissions has been reflected in the inclusion of targets for this area in the recently released Climate Action Plan 2021 - Securing Our Future.
This Plan sets out actions to introduce a Microgeneration Support Scheme (MSS) which supports deployment of an expected 260 MW of new micro (50 kW) to support the deployment of rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV. Food Vision 2030 - also recognises that the agriculture sector has a key role to play in helping Ireland meet its renewable energy targets.
I see the role of Irish farmers in renewable energy systems as three-fold through:
- Establishing energy efficiencies on-farm.
- Through deployment of renewable energy at farm level; and
- As a supplier of biomass/ bio-energy feedstocks
I continue to remain committed to supporting farmers in their adoption of renewable energy technology systems through the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) programme. Under this scheme farmers can qualify for grant aid of between 40% to 60% for a suite of different cost saving renewable technologies such as LED lighting, solar panels, biomass heaters and variable speed drives for milking plants. This support for renewable energy investments will continue under the new Capital Investment Scheme.
In addition, the supply of biomass feedstock is an important element for the decarbonisation of heat systems in our agri-food industries and the sector will continue to be a key source of sustainable indigenous biomass material and in fact will double the resource between now and 2030.