A number of innovative new sustainable energy programmes have already been launched as part of a €65 million initiative announced in the context of Budget 2006. The programme is being rolled out over a five year period and provides funding for the domestic, commercial, services and industrial sectors as follows:
The €27 million "Greener Homes" domestic renewable heat grants programme is providing grants for householders for the purpose of installing renewable heating including wood biomass boilers and stoves, solar panels and heat pumps.
The €22 million Bioheat grants programme provides grants for commercial scale wood biomass boilers aimed at the business and services sectors;
The €11 million Combined Heat and Power grants programme is providing funding for the commercial sector to switch to more efficient electricity and heat generation;
A funding programme for the development of commercial biofuels facilities will be launched shortly.
In addition to these funding measures, a number of other financial initiatives have been introduced:
In July, I launched a five-year excise relief programme for biofuels, valued at over €200 million. The programme builds on a pilot initiative rolled out in 2005, in which eight biofuels projects were granted excise relief over a two-year period.
In June, I launched the Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff which is providing a fixed feed-in-tariff for renewable electricity over a fifteen year period.
In support of ongoing policy development we have published five major studies on renewable electricity, bio-energy, CHP, ocean energy and renewable energy. The Bio-energy Ministerial Task Force will develop, by end-year a cohesive national bioenergy strategy. Further policy initiatives are being considered in the context of these developments and the forthcoming Green Paper on Energy Policy. The scope for future funding programmes will be considered in the context of the Estimates and Budget processes.