Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Renewable Energy Directive: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Kevin Brady:

I wish to respond to Deputy Cahill's point. I am stepping outside the transport sector into the heat sector, as it were. Biomass is a key future fuel to decarbonise the heat sector. It is one of the key fuels in the analysis for the renewable heat incentive through the use of biomass boilers. There is a supply of biomass that could be used in the heat sector, but there is a price differential between a fossil fuel and renewable energy heating systems. The renewable heating incentive is examining filling that gap. That might be an opportunity. I do not say it will be the solution to everything that was raised there, but it certainly has potential in the future.