The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is the main Government policy to help deliver on the ambition in the Climate Action Plan 2021 of up to 80% renewable electricity by 2030. The RESS supports communities in a variety of ways including through a separate category for community projects and a mandatory community benefit fund for every project supported in the scheme. The Climate Action Plan includes a target for at least 500MW of renewable electricity to be supplied by local community-based projects; to reach this target at least 100 community projects will be needed. In order to ensure such a pipeline of community projects I have allocated €2 million in capital funding in Budget 2022 to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).
This funding will enable SEAI to deploy a range of capacity-building supports including toolkit guides to assist communities in developing renewable projects. The first four of these, covering grid connection, Solar PV, the planning process and onshore wind, are available on the SEAI website, with more to be developed in the coming months. A trusted intermediary service is also now in place, with an advisor service and financial grant supports to be delivered in Q2 2022.
Prior to the RESS there was only one community-led renewable electricity project in Ireland, the Templederry Community Wind farm in Tipperary. The first RESS auction (RESS-1) included a dedicated community category in which seven projects were selected for support, comprising five solar and two wind projects which are listed in the table below:
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Project Name
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Location
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Ballytobin (Solar)
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Co. Kilkenny
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Barnderg (Solar)
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Co. Galway
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Clooncon (Wind)
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Co. Galway
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Davidstown (Solar)
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Co. Wexford
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Dooleeg (Wind)
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Co. Mayo
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Lisduff (Solar)
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Co. Mayo
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Lurrig (Solar)
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Co. Cork
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The projects are still progressing and a number of milestones remain for each community project to meet in order for them to be eligible for support under the RESS-1 Terms and Conditions. All projects must achieve commercial operation by 31st December 2023.
