Mr. Paddy Phelan:

I thank Senator Gavan. The question is well pointed. Talking about how we were very proactive in this country around our renewable electricity support scheme option, we were first out of the blocks in 2019. Again, we have touched on the element of technology neutral and that has its benefits in terms of value for money. The fundamental purpose of these auctions around energy procurement is to protect the consumer and keep the cost of energy down. We have seen what has happened with the energy markets through the Ukraine war and the linkage to gas and gas price in terms of electricity markets.

I will mention two very important notes, which tie together neatly to Deputy Shanahan's question as well. Within this Act, in Article 20, it is stated that within this auction there is opportunity there "where applicable under Union legislation, and of any limit for non-price criteria set under State aid rules". They are allowing for weightings to be applied in terms of auctions where one can place greater weight perhaps due to the benefit in terms of CO2 or in the instance where we look at the very simple analogy or example of anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion has not been able to compete in our renewable electricity support scheme because of its fundamental difference. One of its outputs can potentially be electricity through combined heat and power, however its primary route to market now is biomethane. In the south-east region, we have completed a resource assessment and it has been found that anaerobic digestion from existing, not additional, resources, can supply up to 10.3% of total energy required in the south-east region by 2030. Whether that is a financial support, a grant, or however it might be, it is clear the current option scheme disadvantages and does not account for the jobs, skills and benefits in a rural region that can come from it. There is a very regional solution within a European context that will not get financial close on any of these projects without support in the form of filling the gap.

The second point to note is when grants, funding, or supports are mentioned, and we look right across the other aspects such as storage for example, energy storage is something we have not touched on. Bio-energy and hydrogen are dispatchable and storable forms of energy, be they liquid, solid or gas. I refer to supports around storage and incentives. I know markets are being considered around longer duration storage. When we look into the energy security sphere and look at what we do after 12 hours into one, two, three weeks such as we experienced last summer, we again identify the opportunity to couple the supports where the ability to store can be demonstrated, like gas or solids or liquids in whichever form, which, at present, electricity very much struggles to do. Going back to which horses we should back, and we can see solar is starting to arrive, move, and significantly contribute in Ireland, we have to understand that wind and solar are very much in that one- to six- to eight-hour space and we have to understand the need to couple storage with all the technologies. Again, going back to sectoral coupling, we have to have supports around storage, and in particular supports around anaerobic digestion. We understand all of the carbon and economic benefits, the jobs, the skills and that the help it would provide to reduce the emissions from the agricultural sector to boot. That study in the south-east region very clearly sets out that we need infrastructure for electricity but we also need coupling with storage and technology-specific supports around, for example, anaerobic digestion. It just cannot compete with wind or solar in an auction without some consideration of the added benefits upstream and downstream.