Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To meet our binding target of 16% of all our energy to be from renewable sources by 2020 as set out in the EU renewable energy directive, the Government is committed to increase renewable energy to 40% in the electricity sector, 10% in the transport sector and 12% in the heating sector. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has modelled in its energy forecasts for Ireland for 2020 that energy from biomass, or bioenergy, in 2020 will account for approximately 5% of our electricity requirements, approximately 10% of our heat requirements and, in the form of bio-fuels, will contribute around 9% of the energy required in the transport sector. This will be a significant challenge and we will need to mobilise biomass from all available sources. This means making the best possible use of forestry resources and increasing the amount of energy crops available.

The role that energy crops will play in meeting renewable energy targets will depend to a large extent on the willingness of land owners to change land use, the availability of long-term markets and the revenue generated by energy crops compared to traditional farming on the same land. The REFIT3 scheme is designed to incentivise the addition of 310 MW of electricity capacity produced from biomass technologies to the Irish electricity grid. It contains incentives for co-firing of biomass in peat powered generation plants with a premium for the use of energy crops. Also, since 2007, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has run the bioenergy scheme, which offers grant supports to incentivise new plantation of energy crops.

Before the end of June, I will publish a national bioenergy strategy which will set out in detail the actions required to facilitate as great a contribution as possible by the bioenergy sector to the 2020 renewable energy targets.

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