Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Solar energy is a growing source of electricity and is rapidly transforming Ireland's energy system, with more than 1 GW of solar generation now in place. This includes more than 400 MW of rooftop solar and nearly 600 MW of grid-scale solar connected.

The renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, has driven significant investment in solar energy in Ireland and has led to a major acceleration in the delivery of solar power to the grid over the past 24 months. RESS has more than 2 GW of solar projects contracted and due to deliver between 2024 and 2027, while further volumes are expected to connect under corporate power purchases in the same period. Further auction rounds, including RESS 4 later this year, can be expected to see continued participation by solar.

In addition to RESS, the microgeneration support scheme and the small-scale renewable electricity support scheme will underpin the delivery of rooftop and small-scale solar energy, including through the provision of grants to support rooftop solar at domestic and commercial level.

Aligning local development plans with national targets for solar and onshore wind, the development of and investment in the electricity network, as well as grid connection rules that enable the rapid deployment of renewables, are also critical to meeting our 2030 solar target. The accelerating renewables task force has been established to co-ordinate and track delivery of a work programme to achieve the 2030 targets for onshore renewables set out in the climate action plan.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I am confident we can do it. Solar will play a large part. I will give Deputy Burke some further figures to back this up. In 2022, there were 10,000 applications. We had only just introduced the microgeneration support scheme, which cost €24 million and had a capacity of 46 MW. Last year 22,000 homes received grant support, with a total value of €52 million. Applications are flying and the number is increasing all the time. I am told the industry is increasing the build-up of its capacity and the supply chain is working very well. As I said, 100 houses a day are putting solar panels on the roof but it is not just homes. Last autumn we introduced a new scheme to provide a grant of up to €162,000 to businesses for up to 1 MW solar installation. This has taken off. We filled up the order book straight away. We have already spent something like €15 million in supports. We are providing further finance. We said it was a pilot scheme but we are not stopping because it is working.

The publication of the new small-scale generation support scheme, which will go up to 5 MW of solar power, with the REFIT scheme, is really designed to support the farming sector and other sectors. I had a meeting with the community energy sector yesterday for us to develop community energy solutions. That support scheme will give a guaranteed price for solar up to 5 MW. Again, it is going to be a further element in the mix. That is not to mention the large-scale projects coming through the RESS and through the corporate power purchase agreements, PPAs. On five or six different fronts, we are seeing huge investment and advancement. To my mind, nothing is going to stop the solar revolution.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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It is a real challenge. It is a massive investment and a huge change. It is backed up. The key issues include the grid – EirGrid has 350 projects and the ESB has project pipeline of about €10 billion set out - and they are delivering that. They need to do it faster, but that is part of it. The other key constraint or bottleneck potentially is in planning. We have had a real difficulty in the last three years where there were various difficulties in our planning system, which people know about. It was very hard to get projects through the planning system. That has been a real impediment and that has delayed us. The review of the national planning framework will be critical in this regard. Aligned to that is the updating of the regional and county development plans. A lot of counties have not been supportive of the development of renewable power, and we need to update that position.

There are other key changes. We are absolutely confident that we can and will deliver offshore wind projects. That does require investment in our ports. The Port of Cork is one example. We need to make quick decisions on that and other ports so that we have the deployment capability. I believe we can do that. Again, we need to get it through the planning system. That will start this spring or early summer when we expect the planning applications to go in.

There are uncertainties, but we are deploying everything in the State to deliver it because it is good for people, the economy and for the climate.