David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Basically, he is saying there are no guidelines and no plans to develop any, yet this whole industry is developing at a very fast pace.

The UK Government has said it will seek the large-scale deployment of ground-mounted solar on brownfield industrial and low or medium grade agricultural land, being quite clear that poor quality land should be used in preference to high quality agricultural land. What is the Minister of State's view on that?

Another matter I want to bring up is something alluded to by the Minister here when he talked about the introduction of regional renewable electricity capacity allocations. That is the issue of dispatch down and curtailments where renewable energy cannot be used due to power system or local network limitations known as constraints. I understand that hundreds of megawatts of energy are being lost to the system due to dispatch down, so we urgently need to upgrade the grid.

A question then arises as to whether producers of renewable energy from solar farms who have to waste the energy produced are compensated by the State for lost income. If so, can the Minister of State let me know now or later how much was paid last year, and to date this year, and the amount projected to be paid in 2024? I am told it could be a very substantial amount, possibly up to a couple of hundred million euro, under the electricity regulations and part of the Clean energy for all Europeans package. If compensation is being paid for energy not being used, does this lead to higher costs for the consumer, both businesses and homes? Should we be allowing the addition of more very large-scale generation capacity if the grid cannot take it and this leads to higher costs, albeit indirectly, to the consumer? Another issue could be the consideration in any national guidelines of the construction of large-scale solar farms.

A small point I came across in the context of another matter is that there is no State guidance as to the maximum permissible noise levels that may be generated during the construction of a solar farm. That is another issue.

There are multiple issues here but the one relating to dispatch down is one on which I would like the Minister of State, if he does not have the information now, to get that information and bring it to me as soon as possible. It is really serious and it is linked to all of this.

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