Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The renewable electricity feed-in tariff, REFIT, schemes are the principal means of supporting renewable electricity generators for renewable energy exported to the grid. Based around power purchase agreements between generators and electricity suppliers, REFIT schemes assure a minimum price for each unit of electricity exported to the grid over a 15 year period. Projects seeking support under REFIT must apply by the end of 2015 and will be required to meet certain deliverables in the period up to September 2018 in accordance with the terms and conditions available on my Department’s website. While the majority of projects supported under these schemes are for wind generation, the subsidies are not currently broken down by technology. The Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, has initiated a project to generate a report on the annual and cumulative costs to date in relation to REFIT schemes for each technology supported under REFIT.

REFIT has been found to be a very cost effective tool to support renewables development, as indicated by a report published by the Council of European Energy Regulators earlier this year. This finding of cost effectiveness is aligned with various reports and analyses which have examined the effect of renewables on electricity prices. The ESRI, the Irish Wind Energy Association, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, and EirGrid have all undertaken studies and published the results of same. Analysis undertaken by my Department, the SEAI, EirGrid and the CER has assessed the costs and value of choosing the path towards 40% renewable electricity generation in 2020 compared to a scenario where renewable electricity remained at 2013 levels. This analysis has informed a report which I mentioned earlier will be published shortly.

My Department is developing a new support scheme that takes account of the structure of the electricity market which will operate in Ireland from 2016 onwards. The scheme will be subject to state aid clearance and undergo an appropriate public consultation process.

The PSO levy is the overall support mechanism for generation constructed for the development of renewable electricity and is determined each year by CER. I circulate with the Official Report a table setting out the costs for overall renewable generation since 2010/11:

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