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Renewable Energy Incentives

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 31 May 2018

Thursday, 31 May 2018

Ceisteanna (3)

Timmy Dooley

Ceist:

3. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the new renewable energy support scheme; the date by which this will be launched; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24177/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (13 píosaí cainte)

Does the Acting Chairman not want to interrupt the Minister for the reason that he is a constituency colleague or is it the message he is delivering?

I am a constituent.

In regard to climate action, will the Minister provide an update on the renewable energy support scheme, the date by which it will be launched and if he will make a statement on the matter?

Referring back to Deputy Stanley's question, while the Minister outlined a good deal of progress, the reality is that we are still behind on our targets. Progress has been made but enough has not been made so far and we are now in peril of putting the country in a position where it could be in breach of agreements already made.

It is in breach.

It is in breach, yes.

It will be in breach by 2020 in regard to emissions.

The 2015 energy White Paper presents a long-term strategic vision that is intended to guide the direction of Irish energy policy from now until 2030. It identifies the long-term strategic importance of diversifying Ireland's energy generation portfolio and largely decarbonising the energy sector by 2050. My Department is developing a proposed new renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, which is designed to assist Ireland in meeting its renewable energy contributions out to 2030 and, in addition, I intend that the scheme will provide opportunities for shovel-ready projects that can deliver for our 2020 targets.

The new scheme will support the delivery of Ireland's national policy objectives, in particular the transition to a low carbon and climate resilient society, as laid out in the national mitigation plan, the national development plan and Project Ireland 2040. In addition, the new scheme will deliver capacity building supports for community-led projects, including financial, technical and legal assistance, along with community benefit obligations for all projects looking for support under the renewable electricity support scheme.

The design of the new scheme includes an extensive independent economic appraisal to compare the cost of supporting a range of commercial renewable technologies at various scales to ensure that the new scheme delivers value for money for energy users while also delivering on the energy pillars of competitiveness, sustainability and security of supply. The assessment also includes analysis of the optimum financial support mechanisms for renewable technologies, in line with the 2014 EU state aid guidelines. The analysis indicates that a number of renewable technologies have converging and in some cases overlapping cost ranges, and I note the continued falling costs of renewable technologies such as offshore wind and solar photovoltaic, PV.

I am keen that the new scheme encourages the diversification of renewable energy technologies in Ireland while mindful of the need to minimise the costs on consumers through the public service obligation, PSO, levy. At this stage, no final decisions have been made regarding the new technologies or scales to be supported under the new renewable electricity support scheme.

The final design proposal will shortly be brought to Government for approval, including the overall costs and technologies to be supported. Subsequent to the Government decision, a formal application for state aid clearance will be submitted to the European Commission and the scheme is expected to open in 2019.

In parallel with the development of the RESS, I am also developing a pilot scheme for microgeneration which will be launched later this year and will target domestic households and self-consumption.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, has assessed that it will cost the State approximately €100 million to €150 million for every percentage point we are over the 16% renewable energy target by 2020. We are facing definite fines. The key question is what we are doing about that. While we have the policies, the implementation of same is the key issue. We have no difficulty drafting policies in this country but the delivery of same is a problem. For example, we have been waiting a long time for the roll-out of the renewable energy support scheme. The REFIT scheme has stalled. The biomass sector also has been waiting on the support scheme. Those are key sectors within the sustainable sector that are literally waiting for decisions to be made by the Minister and by Government to ensure we can stimulate activity that can allow for a reduction in our emissions.

I accept the frustration Deputy Kelleher is expressing. When I went into this new Department that had been formed, the clean air strategy, the wind regulations, the renewable heat incentive scheme, the renewable electricity support scheme, both in terms of microgeneration and broadening the renewable mix, the national broadband plan, NBP, the flat rate bin charges, the mitigation plan and the adaptation were sitting there, so to speak, trying to be progressed. We have progressed all of those now. We will be bringing a memorandum to Government on the renewable electricity support scheme.

During all of this period we have had to deal with the challenges in regard to Brexit and the consequent knock-on issues to do with energy security, the challenges we talked about earlier in regard to An Post, the waste capacity crisis and the ongoing issues to do with RTÉ. A significant amount of work has been done in the past two years. It has been challenging to move this agenda forward, but we will have the renewable electricity support scheme operational next year. I want to see that operational as quickly as possible because there is the opportunity to ensure that some of that can feed into our 2020 targets. It must be remembered that the renewable electricity support scheme was always planned for our 2030 targets, not our 2020 targets. REFIT is there to meet our 2020 targets, and we are looking to see how we can release some of the blockages in the system to achieve as much as we can under that as well.

Carpe diem, Minister. We cannot depend indefinitely on the future. We can say it will happen but there is one thing we can guarantee here today and that is that Ireland is facing substantial fines for failure to meet its targets. There are key areas within the sustainable sector that need stimulation from Government policy and initiative. The biomass area, for example, solar photovoltaic, PV, and many other areas will be key components in moving the economy to a reduced carbon emission dependency, but they are waiting for Government policy. We have major sectors of the economy, so the private sector will respond to stimulation, incentive and demand. We know there is demand and if that demand is not addressed, we will face further fines continually. Rather than the Minister outlining his policies in terms of what he has done to date and the greater plans into the future, in the here and now we should start that stimulation of the private sector so that it can get on with investing in sustainable energy solutions for the broader economy.

We expect to get approval in the coming weeks from the European Commission for the support scheme for renewable heat. That will stimulate the biomass sector. Prior to that we established Bord na Móna BioEnergy because there is no point having demand unless we have a supply chain. That was established this time last year and that supply chain is now in place.

We will also support biogas, which is something about which Deputy Stanley feels very strongly, under the support scheme for renewable heat. We are engaged through Gas Networks Ireland on a working group on district heating which will also provide demand in terms of the bioeconomy aspect.

In regard to solar PV, we will have a microgeneration scheme operational before the end of this year. There are technical challenges with that but I want a scheme that is not just for this year and that can be expanded and developed in the coming years.

In regard to large-scale projects, that will be part of the renewable electricity support scheme. There are 6.5 GW of applications onto the grid. To put that into context, the total peak demand in Ireland on a cold winter's day is 5 GW, so we have more demand for connection than we can use on the heaviest loading day in this country. The pent-up demand is large. We we will never meet that scale of demand but we will be facilitating getting some of those onto the grid as quickly as possible.

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