Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have been involved with a consultation on the microgeneration support scheme which would allow people to sell surplus power back to the grid. I expect that we will conclude the consultation and the analysis of it and have a scheme in place by the summer. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, has done a lot of work on community schemes already. They are working with something like 250 energy communities. I have seen really good examples in Terenure in my own constituency. That is an ongoing project for the SEAI. The potential benefit is in the aggregation of generation, not just in retrofitting.

The model in which I am particularly interested is the model of a company I have seen in operation in Belgium, Ecopower, which is a community co-operative. The advantage of this model is that a large number of small shares can be aggregated. One can have a share as small as €250 but these are put together into a collective project so that something like a €20,000 solar scheme or even a €500,000 wind farm scheme can be established. It is community-owned. What is really attractive about the model is that the company works on the supply side as well as on the generation side.

We are starting to roll out smart meters to every home. Down the line, we are moving towards this big balancing system. We will need to switch electric vehicle batteries, heat pumps and even deep freezers on and off. A deep freezer can be switched off for an hour or two and it will not defrost. The ability to switch off at peak times or to switch things on at times of high winds will give us capability. The opportunities for communities lie as much on the side of supply management as on the side of demand. Confidence in the sharing of data is what gives real capability in that regard.

In 2020, the SEAI got seed funding of €200,000 to support the establishment of a community enabling framework under the renewable energy support scheme. Having secured a separate category for community projects in the renewable energy support, RES, auctions, we want to expand the pipeline. A further €3 million was allocated to the scheme this year. Some seven community projects were successful in the first round of these RES auctions. We want to expand that and see it a lot more in the next round. It is going to grow.