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Renewable Energy Generation

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 February 2022

Thursday, 10 February 2022

Questions (150)

Holly Cairns

Question:

150. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to assist farmers install renewable energy generation capacities on farms. [7041/22]

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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.

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

As recently as December 2021, the Microgeneration Support Scheme (MSS) was launched, which supports the deployment of an expected 380 MW of new micro (50 kW) to support the deployment of rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV. Landowners and farmers in particular will benefit from the move to renewables as set out under Food Vision 2030 - which clearly recognises that the agriculture sector has a key role to play in helping Ireland meet its renewable energy targets.

To help further encourage on-farm renewable technology uptake and usage, grant aid is provided through TAMS II to assist farmers in maximising their contribution to the production of renewable energy through the installation of Solar PV technology along with battery storage on Irish farms. The solar PV systems grant-aided under TAMS include Solar PV Panels and Solar PV Rechargeable Batteries and Solar Panels for water heating under the Pigs and Poultry scheme.

There are growing numbers of applications under the TAMS schemes for the solar investments in particular, with over 113 applications receiving payment for solar investments to date. With grant aid under TAMS of 40 & 60% available to farmers it can be expected that application numbers under this scheme will continue to rise. 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.

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