Mr. David Maguire:

I am joined by colleagues, Mr. Michael McCarthy, Mr. Michael Moore and Mr. Barry Sherry. I thank the joint committee for inviting us to make a presentation.

To pick up on some of the points made by previous speakers, Ireland has been extremely successful in terms of the cost at which it has deployed wind energy. I understand the cost of wind here is among the lowest in Europe. The deployment of that non-synchronous generated energy on our transmission network has been extremely successful and we are a leader in this area. Nonetheless, according to recent figures from the Environmental Protection Agency, greenhouse gas emissions increased by 3.7% in the past year. We also heard from the previous speaker that in terms of our renewable energy targets for 2020, we are likely to see a shortfall of 3% across the renewable sectors.

While I appreciate that under the European Union's renewable energy scheme, RES, there has been a focus on 2030, which is appropriate, we can also do something about the 2020 targets. While solar power is not a silver bullet and will not solve all the issues, it can make a significant contribution.

A number of speakers referred to our successful track record in various aspects of the renewable sector in recent years. Nonetheless, under the climate change performance index, which is effectively the assessment of 14 indicators, including greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy, we are ranked 49 out of 56 states. This places Ireland last in Europe in terms of performance on climate change, which is extremely disappointing. As a nation, we rely on large amounts of foreign direct investment. The green image of the country is being tarnished by the lack of action on climate change in recent years.

On the more immediate financial implications for Ireland of failing to meet the 2020 targets, estimates of the cost range from €300 million to €500 million per annum. While I do not wish to get caught up on these costs, they are significant and a matter of real concern. In that context, I speak not as a representative of the solar industry but as a taxpayer. It is unfortunate that we have very little time left to bridge that gap. Solar power can assist in mitigating against this financial liability. According to Bloomberg, solar power has attracted more investment than wind.

In 2016, €160 billion of new investment was made in solar alone, more than in coal and gas in the same period. Clearly, it is a technology that is gaining lots of ground in terms of its deployment and investment. Ireland is the only EU member state that does not offer a support mechanism for solar energy. I may be critical of that, as a representative of the solar industry, but I actually think it is a great opportunity because we have a late-mover advantage both in adopting best practice in design support and in technology, design, planning and construction. More than that, because of the cost reductions in solar in the past decade, we can benefit from deployment at a much cheaper price than other EU member states.

Solar continues to decrease but only at approximately 7% or 8% per annum and the industry welcomes the proposal from the renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, that we have competitive auctions. We are very concerned, however, about a technology-agnostic auction, which we have seen in other member states and which do not work. In Ireland, they would lead mostly to the deployment of wind at a potentially higher cost. We believe we can deploy 1.5 GW of solar by the end of 2020, thus mitigating at least half of the potential cost to the Exchequer. The average cost would be between €14 million and €15 million per annum, or less than 7 cent on a monthly basis in the average consumer bill, to avoid a potential fine, or cost in terms of credits, in excess of €200 million.