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

We will need both microgeneration and large-scale. It is interesting how things change. Had the Deputy asked me ten or 15 years ago whether I thought small-scale wind had a future, I would have said "Yes". Now, the answer is "Yes", but only in very isolated areas or certain inaccessible places where the wind is very strong. The reality is that larger turbines are so much more efficient and that is why the industry has gone towards that direction. It means we have fewer turbines and that helps from an environmental perspective.

We are now up to approximately 800 MW of solar already. Had the Deputy told me ten years ago we would put in 800 MW like we did in the past year and a half, I might not have believed him. That is phenomenal. We will deliver up to 5 GW in the next few years. Solar comes in two forms. There are real efficiencies. Larger solar farms are more efficient and economic, so we will see those. We will also see microgeneration. The numbers of households getting solar panels put on their roofs are flying, so to speak. It is the same with businesses.

There is a real issue on the politics of this that we develop community energy. Deputy O'Rourke, who is sitting beside Deputy Kenny, was at the event organised by the European Commission about empowering citizens. It is really important we see more community energy. We have not developed that as much as I would like. We have certain projects that got through the renewable energy support scheme, RESS, system but they are such a challenge, particularly on the grid. Their ability to access the grid is a real constraint. One of the developments that will be coming in the next month or two is a support price for community power up to 5 MW. That will be a step change in terms of seeing some of those community projects being developed. We need both, but we cannot say no to the big projects because one of the advantages is that they bring the price down. There is an issue of affordability. We have to make sure the public get electricity that is not so expensive. Therefore, I do not think we can say that we cannot have any big wind turbines. We would have to explain to the public then why they are paying high electricity bills.