Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his Departments position with regard to the viability of biomass energy as an energy resource which could be utilised on the Irish electricity grid; if Ireland is currently reaching its EU targets with regard to renewable energy; the further actions that will be taken to reach our EU targets in the energy sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31423/14]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The overarching objective of the Government's energy policy is to ensure secure and sustainable supplies of competitively priced energy to all consumers. The 2009 Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our overall energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020. In order to meet this overall target, Ireland is committed to meeting 40% of electricity demand, 12% of heating and 10% of transport power from renewable sources. At the end of 2012, 19.6% of Ireland’s electricity requirements came from renewable sources with 5.2% of our heat requirements and 2.4% of energy in transport coming from renewables. This equated to 7.1% of overall energy from renewables.

In order to support development of renewable electricity generation, policy interventions are designed to incentivise the market to deliver the necessary renewable generation capacity. The choice of technology is ultimately a commercial decision for individual project developers. Currently the REFIT schemes are the primary means through which electricity from renewable sources is supported in Ireland. These schemes support electricity generated from a range of renewable sources including hydro, biomass combustion, biomass combined heat and power, landfill gas and onshore wind and are paid for by electricity customers through the Public Service Obligation.

To date wind energy has proved to be the most commercial technology in the Irish market and provisional figures for 2013 indicate that 16.4% of energy demand in the electricity sector was met from wind. Nevertheless, diversification of the renewable generation portfolio in the longer term will be important for creating a sustainable, carbon free, electricity system. In this regard, biomass will have a role to play and, depending on electricity demand, the full implementation of current policies could mean that up to 5% of electricity may be generated from biomass in 2020.

Biomass, however, is likely to have a more significant role in the heat and transport sectors where fewer alternative technologies exist. Furthermore, estimates by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland show that current policies on their own will not deliver 12% renewable energy in the heat sector. The analysis underpinning the draft Bioenergy Plan, recently approved by Government, is that an additional bioenergy-focused measure in the heat sector would be a cost effective means of meeting Ireland's renewable energy targets. The Plan, therefore, recommends, subject to State Aid clearance and further Government approval, that a scheme be introduced that would incentivise larger heat users to convert to biomass heating solutions. My Department is progressing these outstanding issues and I will revert to Government with a fuller proposal in due course.