Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2024
156. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications how the Government plans to support the raising of funds for construction of community electricity generation projects; if the Government plans to create green financing packages that will allow such projects to access funds to ensure they are financially viable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6125/24]
View answerThrough the first two Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auctions, my Department has provided pathways and supports for communities to participate in renewable energy projects through the application of a community projects category.
Through my Department’s continued engagement with Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), there is evidence of significant challenges that REC projects may face with the auction based nature of RESS, along with other barriers to project delivery.
Therefore, support for communities for the development of renewable projects will now transition to the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS). This export tariff phase of SRESS, which will support small scale and community renewable projects, is due in the coming months.
A set of technical and financial supports from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland are currently available under RESS to communities through the Community Enabling Framework. Similar supports will be available under SRESS. These ‘Community enabling grants’ of €180,000 were designed to support community projects reach financial close, meet all the RESS milestones, and are available for community projects to use towards grid connections costs.
In addition, in 2023, the SEAI also undertook five grid studies to support communities in identifying sites that are most likely to have an economically viable grid connection. The initial focus of these studies has been on counties that are most likely to have available grid capacity for smaller generation projects. Further studies are planned for 2024.
