Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cowen for raising this issue, which I am pleased to take on behalf of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton. I will relay the his comments and concerns to the Minister. As the Deputy said, he accepts the Minister's apologies for not being here. He is not in the House at the moment and is unable to take the question but he will revert in writing to the Deputy with further information next week. I know Deputy Cowen has already raised some of these issues with the Minister.

As set out in the national development plan, the Government intends that, by 2030, peat and coal will no longer have a role in electricity generation in Ireland. This is in line with Ireland’s commitments under the Paris Agreement and the national policy position which sets out a long-term vision of an aggregate reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of at least 80% compared with 1990 levels by 2050 across the electricity generation, built environment and transport sectors.

The three electricity generating plants in the midlands have a total generating capacity of 378 MW. Edenderry is a 128 MW plant owned and operated by Bord na Móna and is fuelled with a mix of peat and biomass. Under the Department’s REFIT 3 support scheme, it has support for co-firing with up to 30% biomass up to 2030. Edenderry has planning permission to co-fire with biomass up to 2023. It is Bord na Móna’s intention to operate the plant fully on biomass by 2028 if planning permission beyond 2023 is received.

The plants at Lough Ree, a 100 MW plant, and west Offaly, a 150 MW plant, are both owned and operated by the ESB. Both have support under the public service obligation to fuel with peat but this support ends in December this year. Both plants have been granted support under REFIT 3 for co-firing with up to 30% biomass up to 2030. The ESB is in the process of seeking planning permission to co-fire with biomass in the plants at Lough Ree and west Offaly.

The ESB is fully committed to this process as part of its strategy to lead decarbonisation in Ireland. As part of this strategy, it is anticipated that both plants will co-fire peat and biomass as soon as planning is obtained with the intention of using only biomass by 2027. Decisions on these applications are likely to be made in the later stages of 2019. An oral hearing has been scheduled for 16 April in relation to the west Offaly plant.

Bord na Móna has outlined to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment a revised plan for reducing the amount of peat in the three plants up to 2028 and replacing with biomass. As the rate of biomass co-firing increases, the total biomass requirement in 2029 is expected to be about 2.6 million tonnes. This transition from peat to biomass would increase the amount of renewable electricity on the system and reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions relative to the plants continuing to run with support of 30% biomass. This is based on a number of assumptions, including that all three plants receive planning permission to co-fire peat with biomass up to 2027 or 2028, that all three plants secure additional support to produce additional renewable electricity from biomass and that, by the mid-2020s, additional quantities of indigenous biomass are available. If this plan is implemented, Bord na Móna would complete the transition out of peat production for electricity generation by December 2028, which is two years ahead of the original commitment under its 2016 sustainability 2030 policy to cease use of peat in electricity generation by 2030.

Among the recommendations of the all-party Joint Committee on Climate Action in its recent report is that the Government re-evaluate its co-firing subsidy for peat and biomass given environmental concerns identified by the Climate Change Advisory Council and that both Bord na Móna and the ESB re-evaluate their future plans for biomass due to the lack of an indigenous supply. As I mentioned, the support for the use of peat in electricity generation for the two ESB plants ends this year. The support for Edenderry ended in 2015. All three plants referred to have support for up to 30% biomass to 2030.

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment is examining the recommendations of the joint committee. In the context of the just transition, where no region will be left behind in the transition to a low-carbon economy, the Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Environment, Deputy Bruton, has recently written to the European Commission requesting the inclusion of the midlands region on the coal regions in transition platform. The main objectives of the platform are to enable multi-stakeholder dialogue on policy frameworks for successful transformation of carbon-intensive regions and to facilitate the development of strategies and projects in areas such as investment for structural transformation, growth and jobs.

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