Vol. 548 No. 2
58 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the percentage of energy supply provided from renewable sources; and her views on whether there needs to be a dramatic increase in investment in renewable energy generation. [4463/02]
Electricity consumption from renewable energy sources during the year 2000 amounted to 6%. On 4 February 2002, I announced the results of AER V, a competition to support the building of new renewable energy based electricity generating plants. I have offered contracts totalling some 362 megawatts to the market. This offer more than doubles any preceding offer under the AER Programme and compares to existing installed capacity of 137 MW. This measure will support private sector investment of more than €400 million in environmentally-friendly energy generation using wind, hydro and biomass technologies. It will provide enough electricity for the equivalent of 250,000 homes, avoiding more than 1.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Other benefits to derive from these projects include a reduction in our heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels by more than 2,000,000 barrels of oil annually and the redirection of over €40 million previously spent on imported fuel back into the Irish economy. I expect to move to the next support measure, AER VI, in the coming months. AER VI will seek to deliver the remainder of the overall 500 megawatt additional capacity by 2005.
