Results 6,501-6,520 of 11,413 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: It is a follow-on question related to the soil quality Dr. Reale mentioned. Even though they are solar panels, I take it the sun does not reach the soil underneath the panels. I am interested in Dr. Reale's statement that the soil quality is shown to improve significantly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Is it the adjoining lands?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: I accept that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: I have a final comment in respect of the North-South interconnector, which is a good example of how not to do things. Mr. Bolger is correct that the process for the interconnector was initiated 20 years ago. The difficulty has been that there has been no public consultation in two decades since. Twenty years ago, a fait accompliwas presented to communities that opposed the plans and we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Is Teagasc aware of anywhere else in the EU where currently, as a standard practice, solar generated electricity cannot be automatically sold back into the grid?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: It is a big part of the discussion here that we cannot, as a matter of course, put solar-generated electricity back into the grid, or at least we cannot get paid for it. Does that happen anywhere else, where an established solar strategy is in place?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: This is absolute lunacy. We hear member talking about over-riding the concerns of local communities for some projects, with all of the talk of environmentalism and climate action, with so much lecturing taking place, and yet we have this resource which is a win-win for everybody concerned. This is in terms of the national interest where it is asked how much better off we would be in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Okay. For clarity, what is the actual reason TAMS-aided solar generated electricity cannot participate in the microgeneration scheme? What is the blockage there? Is it a national blockage or is it EU rules, or do we know what the causation of that is?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: It might be helpful to us to know that in order to overcome the difficulty. Returning to a point I was making, we, in essence, have a law that is preventing the extraction into the national grid of electricity that has been generated through solar power. This is crazy. There has been a great amount of talk about potential farm diversification benefits. If anything, one would have a fear...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: How much of that will be covered by rooftop installation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Are we under-reaching in respect of our targets with regard to solar energy? If I understand this correctly we have a 20% target. Considering the point I was making earlier on, there are very few planning issues with solar in comparison with those that one gets with wind, for obvious reasons. Wind is much more obtrusive and there can be all sorts of issues around visual amenity. The very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Returning to my very first question, we can have all of the grant schemes and all of the incentives that one can put in place but the real incentive is going to be the ability to sell back excess electricity and to get a fair return. We do not know for sure yet what that return will even be. Does Dr. Upton have any sense of what he might expect because we are quoting potential income...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: That is the mooted payment but is that confirmed yet?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: What are the electricity companies currently paying per unit for alternative sources of power on a fossil fuel basis?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: These companies then are getting good value from the solar power providers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am talking here about the idea of electricity providers who are buying the electricity. Is it true to say that they are getting good value?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: I understand that but what are the electricity companies paying for the electricity that they are purchasing and passing on then to the consumer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: I presume that it is more than 13.5 cent.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: That is okay. Addressing the Chairman, we mentioned earlier on writing to various Ministers and I am aware that we have a great deal of work on the programme but there are merits in this committee considering the compiling of a report on this issue because there are so many potential benefits from it for the sector in which we have an interest. This issue crosses a number of Departments...