Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to require the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to establish a cross-departmental taskforce to examine the cost of producing renewable energy in Ireland; to provide for this taskforce to consult with stakeholders and deliver within six months policy recommendations to the Minister on ways to reduce the cost of producing renewable energy per megawatt-hour.

I am sharing time with Deputy Cronin. I welcome the opportunity to introduce the Cost of Renewables Taskforce Bill 2022 to the Dáil today. The Bill is important and would have significant implications for the cost of electricity for people. Its simple aim is to quickly establish a cross-departmental taskforce to examine the high costs of producing renewable energy here and to bring forward recommendations on ways to reduce this cost per megawatt hour. As we strive to reach 80% renewable energy generation by 2030, it is essential that the cost of producing this green electricity comes down. In our latest renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, auction wind energy cleared at almost €98 per megawatt hour. In other European countries prices are in the €50 range and in Spain it is even in approximately €20 per megawatt hour. Instead of coming down towards the European average, the costs in Ireland have gone up in the latest RESS auction. We need to reverse this trend and cut the cost of producing renewable energy here both to reduce household bills and to ensure Ireland is competitive to export wind energy and green hydrogen to Europe.

Delays in the planning system, the design of the auctions, commercial rates and grid connection costs are all pushing up the price of power in Ireland. The aim of this taskforce is to identify all of these contributing factors and to bring forward recommendations looking at international best practice on how to reduce the cost of producing green energy per megawatt hour.

Importantly, this Bill also mandates the taskforce to recommend mechanisms to ensure any savings made on the cost of producing renewable energy are passed onto consumers. Our transition to a zero-carbon energy system must benefit the climate and all of our citizens.

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