Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 February 2018
505. Deputy Kevin O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question No. 410 of 12 December 2017, if he will devise a mechanism that will allow the remaining capacity that was not taken up on the refit 3 scheme to be reopened for applications in view of the fact that only 254MW of the 310MW had been allocated at the time of his reply. [5574/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe REFIT 3 (Renewable Energy Feed in Tariff) scheme, which closed to new applications at the end of 2015, was designed to incentivise the addition of up to 310 MW of renewable electricity from biomass technologies to the Irish electricity grid. Currently 253 MW of renewable electricity projects are compliant under the REFIT 3 scheme and have received a letter of offer from my Department. Under the REFIT 3 Terms and Conditions and the provisions of the relevant State Aid approval from the European Commission, applications for support under the competition were required to be submitted by the end of December 2015.
My Department is focussed on developing a new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) for new applications which is being designed to assist Ireland in meeting its renewable energy contribution to EU-wide targets out to 2030. The design of the new scheme has included an extensive independent economic appraisal which compared the cost of supporting a range of commercial renewable technologies including from biomass sources. Following on from the recent RESS public consultation and review, a final design proposal will be brought to Government for approval in the coming months, including the overall costs and technologies to be supported. A formal application for State Aid clearance from the European Commission will then commence.
