Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted the Minister is in the Chamber to take this matter. I know he had an important engagement with the representative organisation of some major wind industry leaders and ambassadors, the Irish Wind Energy Association, today. I welcome his announcement today that the REFIT scheme is to be extended by two years to 2017. I asked the Minister to consider that issue as recently as last month and I am delighted he is pursuing this course. I know from his announcement that his intention is to bring certainty to wind planning. This has been a particular problem for areas with poor grid development. They have been unable to develop projects and are being discommoded by the slow pace of grid development in the country, which is something outside their control.

This brings me to the nub of the problem I want to highlight. As the Minister will know, there is a massive wind resource in Mayo and we are only too willing to develop its potential. Unfortunately, the standard of the grid in that county is that of a bog road, compared to the superhighway we need to get the electricity out. We do not have a superhighway grid; we only have a bog-road one.

I very much welcome the plans to develop the grid into the west, which will represent a €240 million investment in the area by EirGrid. A 400 kV line will go into County Mayo, which is much needed. However, at the rate matters are progressing, that line will not be in place until 2019 to 2020. I know the Minister indicated as recently as today that he is concerned at the rate at which we are achieving installed capacity. Currently, it is 180 MW per year, on average, and he would like to see it at 250 MW per year.

I am asking the Minister to set up a pilot project in north Mayo. In 2012 EirGrid made a contentious decision to increase the total amount of wind energy connected to the existing 110 kV network under Gate 3 in this area from 170 MW to 340 MW, but the line does not have that capacity. People were made offers prior to that decision. They were offered 60 MW and the understanding was that there would be up to 180 MW on that line.

The offers exceed the capacity on the line and the line is saturated. This, and the constraints and curtailments that EirGrid's decision will impose on them pose a challenge for the financial viability and realisation of projects that have come a long way through the planning process and are due to sign connection agreements under Gate 3 this summer. They will not be as bankable as they were and the money that people have already spent on grid connection and the planning and development of their projects is rendered more speculative because they cannot be sure of the outcome.

I ask the Minister to be innovative. We cannot wait till 2019. I know there is a plan to develop a circuit between Ballina and Castlebar which would reinforce the line and allow the 340MW uprate. Part of the area would be an environmentally sensitive special area of conservation. We will not build a line there overnight. It will take at least five years. There is a great deal of new smart technology in this area including special protection and dynamic line rating schemes. I ask that some of the projects in the Mayo area receive special attention because of the way they have been discommoded due to EirGrid's decision, as well as being a pilot project. I am sure this problem does not affect only Mayo. I am sure it is a problem in other areas with massive resources but no grid. The Minister could direct EirGrid to invest in this and give a commitment to do so by the end of summer so that people are not required to sign connection agreements under Gate 3 and spend hundreds of thousands of euro when they do not know if they can get finance from the bank to build the projects. We must consider other solutions if we are to achieve the Minister's objective which is to increase installed capacity per annum. Otherwise, we will not reach the 2020 targets because of the weaknesses in the grid in the areas where we have the resource.

See this speech in context