Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 March 2022
157. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the way that his Department is assisting communities to develop community-owned renewable energy projects; the number of projects currently receiving assistance from his Department; the annual budget for helping develop community owned renewables; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12990/22]
View answerThe Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is one of the major Government policies to help deliver on the ambition in the Climate Action Plan 2021 of up to 80% renewable electricity by 2030.The RESS supports communities in a variety of ways including through a separate category for community projects and a mandatory community benefit fund for every project supported in the scheme. The Climate Action Plan includes a target for at least 500MW of renewable electricity to be supplied by local community-based projects; to reach this target it is estimated that at least 100 community projects will be needed. In order to ensure such a pipeline of community projects I have allocated €2 million in capital funding in Budget 2022 to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
This funding will enable SEAI to deploy a range of capacity-building supports including toolkit guides to assist communities in developing renewable projects. The first four of these, covering grid connection, Solar PV, the planning process and onshore wind, are available on the SEAI website, with more to be developed in the coming months. A trusted intermediary service is also now in place to assist community projects. A trusted advisory service, for expert financial, grid and planning advice, and financial enabling grant supports are to be delivered in quarter two of 2022.
To date seven community projects, comprising five solar and two wind projects, from the first RESS auction are progressing through a number of milestones for delivery under the RESS scheme.
