I propose to take Questions Nos. 279 and 280 together.
The 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 is an auction-based support scheme. It invites grid-scale renewable energy generation projects to compete to receive a guaranteed price for the electricity that they generate.
This support will be for a period of up to 16.5 years under a two-way floating feed in premium. This means that projects receive the price they bid in at, which for RESS-1 projects was an average of €74.08/MWh. The details of individual project supports under the Public Service Obligation Levy are a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).
Over 1GW of new wind and solar generation was secured in the first RESS auction (RESS 1) in 2020. Projects are expected to reach commercial operation between 2022 and 2023, and are required to be operational before the end of 2023 at the latest.
The below table shows the breakdown of RESS 1 projects by county is included below.
County
|
Total Projects
|
Solar Projects
|
Wind Projects
|
Amount in MW
|
Carlow
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0.5
|
Cavan
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
23.06
|
Clare
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
23
|
Cork
|
15
|
13
|
2
|
81.69
|
Donegal
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
71.2
|
Galway
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
8.9
|
Kerry
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
Kildare
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
17.99
|
Kilkenny
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
11.99
|
Longford
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
8
|
Louth
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
3.99
|
Mayo
|
4
|
1
|
3
|
106.3
|
Meath
|
7
|
7
|
0
|
291.13
|
Offaly
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
113
|
Tipperary
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
89.326
|
Waterford
|
4
|
3
|
1
|
53.35
|
Wexford
|
7
|
7
|
0
|
129.92
|
Wicklow
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
12
|
Totals
|
63
|
46
|
17
|
1049.346
|