I propose to take Questions Nos. 33, 74, 116, 225, 255 and 274 together.
Support programmes put in place by this Government have more than doubled the capacity of renewable energy powered electricity generating plants connected to the electricity target in the last two years. Building on this progress, I also announced recently an ambitious programme to treble the contribution by renewable energy sources from 5% of electricity produced to 15% by 2010.
There are over 860 megawatts of renewable capacity connected to the national grid today. This consists of approximately 590MW of wind powered plant, 236MW of hydro powered plant with the balance (c. 35MWs) made up of different biomass technologies. The new target will require growth in the sector to more than double from the 860 megawatts, or so, currently connected to 1650 megawatts by 2010. On 1st May last I launched a new support programme which moved away from an emphasis on competitive tendering operated over the previous decade to a fixed price type support mechanism.
This new system was developed after a public consultation programme, work within the Renewable Energy Development Group which included representatives from the regulator's office, the network operators, suppliers and project developers. My officials have also had ongoing meetings with at least four suppliers likely to participate in the new support programme, which is commonly referred to as REFIT.
The new programme has been favourably received, generally speaking, by both electricity producers and retail suppliers. The programme opened on 1st June and sixty one applications were received. My officials are currently in consultations with the applicants following an initial examination of applications. Based on market interest to date I am satisfied the historically high growth rate can be delivered on time.
Additional targets beyond 2010 will be determined in the context of the development of an all-island electricity market. The aim is to develop a long term strategy to support increased renewable energy penetration on the island as a whole. To this end a consultation paper entitled "2020 Vision for Renewable Energy" was published in July 2005. The responses to this paper are available on my Department's website and will inform future policy in this area.
As part of this work a major all-island grid study is underway to examine the implications of significantly increased renewables in the electricity mix on the island by 2020.