Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly: Discussion

2:00 pm

Mr. Michael Manley:

There is a lot happening. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, can answer a little further, but we already have more than 200 sustainable energy communities. Of those, 55 are developing large macro plans, looking at all the things they can do, including generation, efficiency, management and self-consumption. The target of the SEAI is to grow that number to 500. In many ways, that is taking the Tipperary energy model and growing it out. Communities are going to need trusted intermediaries which they can go to and who talk with authority about energy issues and give advice. Then again, that will have to be paid for, so how can that be structured into the system that pays for all the energy costs?