Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The delivery of renewables will have to be through both the large-scale projects, such as the offshore projects I have just mentioned, and much smaller projects, so that it is more widely owned. That starts, for example, in the retrofitting of buildings, where we will be taking out an oil or gas-fired boiler and putting in a heat pump powered with renewable electricity. This will help us to balance renewable power in the long run, when we have a large stock of heat pumps that we can turn on and off to match the wind power as it becomes available.

That is an example of the projects we should be targeting in the immediate future – in the next year of the stimulus period - because it can be delivered quickly. Similarly, I agree fully that community involvement and community ownership of renewable power is going to be a critical component of this transformation and this just transition. There are mechanisms within the proposed auction system that will allow us to promote and ensure community ownership within the development of new projects. That political agreement among all parties in the House will help to deliver this as quickly as possible.

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