Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 May 2025
44. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the estimated cost for a renewable energy community to connect to the grid; the number of renewable energy communities that have been successful in RESS or SRESS that have energised; and the number that have failed to energise and time out of their RESS contract or SRESS before energising, in tabular form. [28181/25]
View answerThe Programme for Government commits to promoting the Small-Scale Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (SRESS) to simplify market access for community owned solar and wind projects and to supporting communities to secure grid access for local renewable projects.
Seven community projects were successful in the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme 1 (RESS 1) auction, (five solar and two wind projects). Of these seven projects, three have now energised. These community projects have been enabled by the RESS scheme and have now entered into private arrangements for selling their renewable energy.
Ten community projects were successful in the RESS 2 auction. Of these, eight solar projects signed implementation agreements to deliver under the RESS 2 terms and conditions and two wind projects did not take up the RESS 2 offer. Some RESS 1 and RESS 2 projects may also develop through alternative routes to market, including SRESS.
Through my Department’s continued engagement with RECs, there is evidence of significant challenges that REC projects may face with the competitive, auction based nature of RESS, along with grid and other barriers to project delivery. Therefore, support for communities for the development of renewable projects has now transitioned to the non-competitive SRESS.
The SRESS export phase is designed for community, SME and farm projects above 50kW to 6MW, offering a simpler route to market, with fixed tariffs for solar and wind, aligning more closely to their experience and the capacity of these sectors. All export projects up to 1MW can also apply to SRESS, and need not be communities, SMEs or farmers.
The scheme opened for applications on 27 January. The SRESS application form together with the terms and conditions and a non-technical summary, are available on the Department’s website at https://www.gov.ie/sress.
Responsibility for oversight of the development of the electricity grid and related costs is a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).
From engagement with communities representatives and sectoral stakeholders my Department is aware that grid costs can be substantial, in some cases running into millions of euro, and can vary enormously depending on the project location and network reinforcement needs.
To assist communities, under the Community Enabling Framework SEAI has also recently undertaken eleven grid studies on a county basis to support communities in identifying sites within their locality that are most likely to have an economically viable grid connection.
In addition, the ESB Networks’ Generation Minimum Cost Calculator and Grid Availability Capacity heatmap help communities estimate connection costs and identify viable sites. Both tools are available on the ESB Networks website www.esbnetworks.ie/services/tools-maps.
