Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Through the first two RESS auctions, my Department provided pathways and supports for communities to participate in renewable energy projects via the application of a community projects category and the requirement of a mandatory community benefit fund for all RESS projects. Furthermore, a community enabling framework for renewable energy projects to provide a package of enabling supports, including technical, financial and legal services, has been rolled out to assist communities in navigating the challenging terrain of electricity generation. The SEAI is leading in implementing and facilitating these components of the framework, which include a trusted advisory service, enabling grants and nine information guides on the SEAI's website. To address some of the challenges associated with grid connections, the SEAI is also undertaking grid studies on a county basis to support communities in identifying sites within their localities that are most likely to have an economically viable grid connection. Three such studies have taken place so far, with accompanying community information events highlighting the results. Four more studies are planned in the coming months.

Through my Department’s continued engagement with renewable energy communities, RECs, there is evidence of significant challenges that REC projects may face with the competitive, auction-based nature of RESS along with grid and other barriers to project delivery. Therefore, a community projects preference category has not been included in RESS 3. Rather, support for communities for the development of renewable projects will now transition to the non-competitive small-scale renewable electricity support scheme, SRESS. The export tariff phase of SRESS to support small-scale and community renewable projects is due to be launched later this year. This scheme will align more closely with the experience and capacity of the community energy sector and support a more sustainable delivery pathway to the renewable energy community target of 500 MW by 2030.

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